DUAL FLAMES
by Ipod384
Summary: Naruto x Temari fic. naruto goes off to train with Temari this time around. Slight crossover with Ronin Warriors. no actual ronin characters, just the armors.
1. Chapter 1

DUAL FLAMES CHAPTER 1

_Naruto stood on the castle ramparts and looked out into the distance. He had grown in three years. It was almost time to go back home. Instead of his orange jacket and pants, with a black shirt, Naruto now wore a coat long sleeve chain mail with his crest embroidered in red leather on his back. His crest was the swirl that was usually on the back of his jacket. Over that he wore an orange short sleeve tunic, with an adjustable collar; (in other words it could be drawn tighter by strings).He wore black pants that were missing his old tape and shuriken holster. His original headband had gotten so ratty he had had to remake the metal and get a new cloth strip. Now it had a black strip that was way longer than his old one, he thought it looked good. Civilian clothes sucked. Naruto always felt naked without his armor now. The small town was so peaceful at night. He felt something get thrown in his direction. He caught it, it was Root Beer, in the bottle, just the way he liked it. "Thanks, Temari," he said. _

_He heard the usual grunt in response. It wasn't a masculine grunt, quite the opposite. Naruto thought it was kind of hot. He turned and looked at Temari. She was wearing an outfit similar to Naruto, but her tunic was black and had the Suna symbol instead of the Uzumaki symbol, and her headband looked like it always had. She still wore her hair in the same four pony-tails. She wore the same shinobi sandals as always, and her gloves were black and the right hand had a square cut out to show her rank tattoo. It was in a light blue ink. Three western swords crossed each other. Naruto looked at his own right hand; it had three western swords crossing each other in red ink. Temari spoke up, "So….how are we going to explain…us…to everybody at home?"_

"_What is there to explain?" Naruto asked, and Temari opened her mouth to say something but Naruto interrupted, "Besides, we don't have to have this talk now."_

_Naruto tipped his root beer up and took a healthy gulp of the frothy drink. Perfect. Almost as good as ramen after a hard day's work, as soon as Naruto was back at home he was going to have both Ramen and Root Beer as one meal. It would be a feast of Nectar and Ambrosia. His stomach growled. Temari laughed her special laugh. It was haughty, but also Naruto felt the real joy behind it. "You are thinking about Ramen again, aren't you?" Temari asked. _

_Naruto nodded, with anime tears running down his cheeks, he missed ramen so. The West had only one flaw, no ramen. Naruto sighed as he said, "Can you believe how far we've come?"_

_Temari shook her head, it was impressive. She could probably hold her own against full-demon Gaara now. She followed Naruto's eyes out into the city. She took in the whole view, for she knew she couldn't stay here forever. _

**BACK IN THE PRESENT**

It was six months after Temari's first chunin exam. This time the test was being held in Suna. The written test had been easy. Now, it was the second exam, where Konoha had used their infamous 'forrest of death' in their second exam, in Suna they were using the much scarier Death Valley. In this valley were the terrifying creatures that were supposed to have become extinct millions of years ago, and there was no food or water, so this was a place where no rest could be found. It was the scariest place in the entire village…and her favorite training ground. Temari smirked as the gates opened. She would dominate on her home field. Within an hour of the start of the exam, The Sand Siblings were at the front gate of the bunker with each of the five scrolls required to enter and finish their exam. That was when Kankuro stopped walking. He turned to his brother and said, "Wait a second, why don't we just go back and watch the other examinees compete? It could be fun to disqualify some competition early."

Gaara stared at him for a second. Then he looked at Temari with a questioning look. Since Gaara had fought that Uzumaki kid, things had been looking up. Gaara was now treating them better and even coming to Temari for advice. Temari shrugged it was Gaara's call. Gaara sat down and started to rub his temples…deep in thought. He sighed and said, "If you really think it will help us out, then go…but I don't want to go. I think I am going to sit right here."

Kankuro smirked and jumped back off into the endless dunes of sand that surrounded the bunker.

**ELSEWHERE**

Naruto Uzumaki breathed in and out. Tsunade had made Naruto and Pervy Sage stop their traveling so that Naruto could participate in the Chunin Exam in Suna. Naruto picked up the last of the 'elemental scrolls' and started towards where he had scouted out the bunker to be. He was currently at the bottom of one of the Death Valley's many canyons. And because Tsunade for some odd reason didn't want the other genin to know that he was here, he was currently in a giant tan cloak that covered up his entire body from neck to foot, and had a hood to cover his head. So in other words…it was hot as hell. Under the hood, Naruto was wearing his headband around his neck, and a Kakashi-esque mask. It had been Naruto's going away present from Kakashi. His cloak had served as the perfect camouflage without Naruto even realizing it.

Naruto had just been walking around looking for some ninja when some hopped by him without even seeing him. Naruto was about to ambush them when a giant herd of tiny dinosaurs had jumped out from behind some rocks on the canyon floor and started to attack the other ninja. Naruto sat back and observed the ninja's techniques. They were flashy and consumed too much chakra. That sounded just like techniques of lightening ninja. He had laid the beat down on them and taken their scrolls. Naruto pushed some chakra into his feet and started to run. The result was a dash that was twice the speed of a normal sprint. Naruto could keep this up for half an hour.

Naruto thought about his travels so far. He had only been with Pervy Sage for three months, but he was definitely in a new league of strong. Pervy Sage had taught him the secret behind using Shadow Clones, and how to summon different toads. Naruto wasn't quite as good as Jiraiya, but he could almost pick which toad he wanted to call on for individual situations. Naruto stopped when he saw three figures up ahead of him. It was Sakura, Ino and Chouji. Naruto chuckled.

Naruto knew that with Shikamaru gone, Team Asuma needed someone to fill in the gap. He guessed that Sakura had filled that gap. Naruto really felt bad for Chouji. He twitched as he realized that the trio was surrounded. Sand ninja. It was their home field. They were likely planning on ambushing Sakura and the rest of team Asuma. Naruto quickly counted their chakras. It was only three of them. They could handle that, couldn't they? That was when he heard a new voice….

**ELSEWHERE**

Kiba, Hinata, and Shino were setting up camp, they currently had three scrolls. They only needed two. They had set up in a canyon that three lightening ninja had been beaten in. The thing was, it had a funny scent around. It was oddly familiar. Shino reached his arms into the air and called all his bugs back, if Shino's bugs could identify the chakra of the person, it would put Kiba's mind at rest. "So, who is it that I am smelling?"

"Whoever beat these ninja didn't use any chakra. Could it have been Rock Lee?"

Hinata interrupted, "um…..L-L-lee isn't entered in these exams. N-N-Neji isn't either."

**WITH NARUTO**

Kankuro had seen through his camouflage. Damn. The Suna-nin had come out of nowhere. He was currently unconscious. A swift chop to the back of his neck had all that had been needed. For that problem anyway. Now Naruto was being attacked by Sakura, Ino and Chouji. They had dealt with the sand ninja quickly. Naruto couldn't afford to stand still, unless he wanted to be brought under by Ino, or punched by Sakura. Naruto heard another boom where he had been a second earlier. Sakura's fist was in a rock. The rock had cracked. She wasn't quite as strong as Tsunade, but it was close. Chouji was making the earth shake by playing squish the spider with some shadow clones in his 'expanded' state. The good news was, that Naruto's cover wasn't blown yet. Ino then appeared in front of Naruto. Naruto cursed. She grabbed at his face with the hopes of getting a hold but only got his headband. Naruto jumped back and flipped in the air. Ino looked at the headband with a look of utter confusion on her face. She motioned Sakura and Chouji over to observe her new discovery. Their jaws dropped. Then in unison they all asked, "Why didn't you tell us you were from Konoha?"

"…"

Sakura's eyebrow arched. Then she said, "Hey! Your fighting style is familiar. Do I know you?"

Naruto sighed, "How troublesome…."

Ino gasped, "Shikamaru?!"

Naruto twitched, "NO! How could you think I was Shikamaru?! I am so much prettier!"

Sakura tilted her head. Naruto gasped and pointed behind them, they looked and Naruto grabbed his headband from their hands. He then turned around and dashed away like a madman. On his way to the bunker he grabbed Kankuro's body and hurled it over his shoulder. Naruto pushed all of his chakra into his feet and ran like hell. Within five minutes he came upon the bunker. He carefully went around Gaara and Temari and opened the door. Gaara started at the sound of the door opening. Naruto walked in.

Temari saw a man in a tan cloak walk in. She then noticed that the man had thrown down her brother in the sand at their feet. The man closed the door behind him. Temari stared at Gaara who seemed….mad. That was not good for the man in the tan cloak. They quickly found a new door and walked in. Temari took the liberty of slapping Kankuro awake. It took thirteen slaps, she counted out loud. Kankuro explained what had happened to him. He had seen some sand ninja about to tackle some shinobi way out of their league and wanted to help, but first he had seen the tan cloak in the sand, "….and so then I patted his back and…then everything went black."

Gaara took their scrolls and opened them. Baki appeared in a poof of smoke. He smiled at them and said, "Wow, no surprise you guys got here so fast. Without a scratch again Gaara! Temari, you don't look like you're even sweating. Kankuro…..ohmygawd…what happened to you?"

"Guy in the room next over got the drop on me good."

Baki thought about it for a second and said, "Well, frankly, don't be offended, but that sounds about right. He has a legendary teacher."

"Who is he?" Gaara asked.

"I am not allowed to tell you."

"Why?"

"The council's orders."

Gaara breathed in and out. He knew he would get his answers one way or another.

**IN THE NEXT ROOM OVER**

Naruto sighed. That had been one close call. He could feel Gaara's killing intent from in the next room. Pervy sage had informed him that Tsunade was okay with the other ninja knowing that he was from Konoha, so long as they didn't know it was Naruto. Naruto broke out of his reverie, "Why the hell do I have to keep my identity a secret?"

"Tsunade probably wants to test your stealth….or she could be just messing with ya."

"Damn it all."

"I know how you feel."

"Wake me when the preliminaries are going to start."

Naruto nodded off without another word.

**THE NEXT DAY IN THE CENTER OF THE BUNKER**

Naruto looked around himself. He was deep in the bunker, in a 100 by 60 yard room. It had 20 booths worth of seats. Each ninja team got their own. Naruto had to share his booth with Pervy Sage, who was in a henge. Tsunade didn't want any of the genin to know what was going on. So they couldn't know that Jiraiya was here, because the smart ones would put two and two together. He was wearing some old anbu armor, his hair was groomed and straightened, His face-paint was gone, and he had swapped his toad headband for a leaf headband. Sixteen competitors had made it through the Death Valley. That was once again too much for the third stage. Naruto sighed. He looked at the electronic board for the first two names. Jiraiya had given Naruto the alias of 'Namikaze'. Jiraiya chuckled when he did it, and kept on saying it was appropriate, but Naruto didn't get it. The proctor then said, "It would seem that our board is malfunctioning, so we will just read off the names. The first two competitors are….Hyuuga Hinata and………Namikaze."

Naruto jumped into the arena. He loved a good fight. Hinata just walked down the stairs. Naruto pumped his arms in the air and shouted, "It is time to RUN WILD!"

Hinata flinched. The proctor then jumped up and shouted, "Go!"

Naruto charged the girl. Hinata grabbed his punch and twisted it, so that Naruto went flying by into a wall. Naruto saw stars. He tried to grab them, but they slipped through his fingers. As Naruto stared at his fingers, he noticed that Hinata was charging at him. He slipped by barely. He turned around and shouted, "Demon windmill!" With that, Naruto threw his gigantic shuriken at the oddly nervous Hyuuga. Hinata turned around and Naruto saw realization go briefly across her face. She then activated her Byakugan. Her eyes widened. Naruto sweat dropped. Why did she get like this around him? Could she tell? She then said, "N-N-Nar…."

Naruto put a hand over her mouth and whispered in her ear, "You can't tell anybody alright? The Hokage doesn't want anybody to know!"

Hinata nodded, realized that Naruto was touching her and promptly fainted. Naruto sweat dropped. The proctor called the match.

Naruto waltzed back up to his booth where Jiraiya was shaking his head, Naruto didn't know at what, and didn't care. He turned back to the proctor. "The next fighters are," the proctor shouted, "Gaara of the dessert and….sorry if I pronounce this wrong…..Edword?"

A tall man with really curly brown hair started for the arena as Gaara did. Naruto looked at Jiraiya with a pleading face, but Jiraiya shook his head, there would be no cheering on friends here. Naruto dropped his head in depression, but Jiraiya grabbed his head and made him look up to see the match. Edward and Gaara were facing each other in the arena. The proctor jumped back and shouted, "Go!"

Naruto observed as Edward pulled on some gloves with bracing on them and then…gigantic red mittens, by the look of them. The new guy was wearing only some loose looking shorts. He began to hop around the arena and throw punches with these padded gloves. Gaara's eyebrow arched as he watched. Then Edward shouted at Gaara, "I am going to pulverize you with my Boxing Gloves of Doom!"

Gaara dashed at his opponent and when he was just out of the other man's reach he started his infamous 'sand hell' combo. Sand rushed at the foreigner and inflicted blows like hammers, retracted and formed shuriken and then flew at him again. After what seemed like an eternity of sand-blows, Gaara retracted his sand and formed two giant fists of sand and made them collide with his poor opponent between them. The two fists then collapsed into a pile of sand over the probably dead man. Gaara looked at the proctor. The proctor's eyes widened and he pointed at the pile of sand. It was moving. Edward stood up. Everyone watched in fascination as his wounds healed. Then Edward said, "When I was a child, I was blessed by a goddess of the earth so that whenever I am touching the earth, I am invincible. You don't stand a chance."

Gaara then made a motion with his hand. All the sand at Edward's feet formed around him. Gaara motioned up with his hand. The Sand went into the air. Then Gaara clenched his hand. The Sand imploded. Then sand usually fell back to the ground but this time Gaara kept it in the air. He looked expectantly at the proctor who quickly said, "The match goes to Gaara."

Gaara withdrew his sand into its gourd. The mangled body of Edward remained on the ground. As if an afterthought Gaara had some sand pick up the remains and drop it in various trashcans around the room.

The proctor walked out again. He then said, "Temari of the Sand and Kiba Inuzuka. Naruto looked around the room and located the box with only three people in it now. It was the foreigners box. The teacher of these new guys was a tall, red-haired chick, who was also dressed in funny clothes. The other two people were obviously the other competitors. One wore a white tunic, pair of pants, shoes and had no hair on his head. His clothes looked odd. Jiraiya seemed to be reading Naruto's mind because he then said, "Those are fire-proof, it must have something to do with his jutsu."

Naruto nodded. The other kid was tall, scary tall, like six foot 10 inches tall. He wore a beaten up leather duster, jeans with a couple holes in them, they appeared to have been burnt. He wore a standard black shirt with no design on it. He had brown hair and blue eyes, but what really seemed odd about him was the gigantic wooden staff with all sorts of symbols and stuff that caught Naruto's attention. Either it was for show, or it meant he had something really nasty up his sleeve.

A hand hit Naruto upside the head and Naruto looked at the match to see that Temari had spanked Kiba. He was laying on the floor unconscious. He had missed it. "The next two are," the proctor said, "Dresden and….number 23?"

The foreigner with the staff walked down to the arena and was met by a rain ninja. The proctor started the match. Dresden held up his staff and shouted, "FORZARE!"

The rain ninja flew back twenty feet and collided with the wall…hard. So hard that he didn't get up. The match was called. The proctor then called the next two contestants, "Ino Yamanaka, and Number 79."

Ino and the second rain ninja stared at each other. And then they stared some more. The match began and yet all they did was stare at each other. Naruto looked at Jiraiya questioningly. Jiraiya sighed and then said, "They are having a genjutsu battle."

Naruto nodded. There wasn't anything he could learn from this match. He looked around and noticed that Gaara wasn't in the Sand's box. Naruto surveyed the room and noticed that he was talking with Sakura. Sakura looked absolutely terrified. This was the guy who had nearly killed her. Then Gaara pointed at Naruto and asked something. Naruto was still learning how to read lips, but it appeared that he asked something along the lines of: "What do you know about that guy over there?"

Sakura responded, " I know this is going to sound weird but…during the last exam, we fought against him, he has a Konoha headband, but I have never seen him before. Asuma-sensei says that he is definitely from Konoha, and that we do know him, then he said, if we could figure it out, he would buy us all dinner. That is why Chouji is acting the way he is."

Naruto looked at Chouji. He was glaring at him. The 'Big-Boned' ninja made a motion for Naruto to pull off his hood. Naruto shook his head. Then he realized that Sakura and Gaara were looking at him expectantly. Naruto waved at them. Gaara sneered. Naruto made a peace sign. Gaara walked back to his box. Naruto looked at Jiraiya who was still looking intently at the match. Naruto looked back to the match. Right as he did, Ino fell over and the Rain ninja raised his hand and said, "I resign from the match."

Ino jumped back to life after that. Naruto flashed back to the match between Ino and Sakura at the last Chunin exam. It made sense. Ino skipped back to her box, but stopped and got out of Gaara's way. She shuddered once he was past and then skipped on back. The next match was between "Bob and Shino Aburame."

The last of the foreigners walked into the arena. Shino casually took his time down the stairs when he finally got all the way down, Bob pointed at him and shouted, "I hate waiting, and you made me wait for you, so I am going to make you pay."

Shino struck his trademark bug-release stance. Bob copied the stance. Bugs started to pour out of Shino's body. Fire started to bleed out of Bob's eyes. Then Fire appeared in his hands. Soon, Bob's eyes were all flame. Shino spoke, "you should know that my bugs are very special, they can develop to become fire-proof in only about fifteen minutes."

"And you should know," Bob responded, "That my fire is all-consuming, body and mana all burn."

Shino and Bob both flicked their wrists at the exact same time and the exact same way. Fire and Bugs collided, and fought each other for dominance. The bugs just kept on coming, Shino smirked. Then Bob did something unusual. He widened his eyes and then the fire that came out of them shot out at Shino. The bug user caught fire. Shino started to roll around on the ground. Bob came over and stomped his opponent out…and unconscious. Naruto's jaw dropped. Jiraiya started to clap. The proctor quickly called the match and some medics.

"The next match is Sakura Haruno," proclaimed the proctor, "v.s. Number 43."

Sakura jumped out into the arena. The final rain ninja walked out into the arena. This one had an umbrella. He threw it into the air and needles shot out. Sakura didn't have enough time to react. She jumped back and got hit quite badly in the legs. She quickly made a few handsigns and her hand started to glow green. The needles fell out of her legs and her wounds started to rapidly heal. She picked up two of the needles, and dipped them in something from her ninja tool bag. She threw the needles at the other ninja just as he was about to shoot out more needles. The two needles hit the other ninja in the neck. Naruto gaped. That had been amazing. Then Sakura turned to the proctor, smiled and said, "Don't worry, he isn't dead, but he will be if he doesn't see immediate treatment."

The Rain ninja was carted off by the by now very, very tired medics. Kankuro jumped into the arena. Him and fatass were the only two left. Chouji jumped out into the arena. He looked at the proctor, who nodded, and then he shouted, "HUMAN BOULDER!"

His torso expanded so that his head and limbs all went inside and then he started to roll around after Kankuro like crazy. Kankuro jumped up into the air. He pulled out both the crow and the black ant. He made the crow split up and sent all the blades flying at his opponent. They all hit home. Blood spattered the arena floor. Chouji unexpanded. He then started to run at Kankuro, but fell over halfway there. He could no longer support his own body weight. Even Naruto realized it was poison. Kankuro called the medics who had just exited the room. They ran in and looked around. They sighed, picked up Chouji and ran off to the hospital.

The proctor stepped into the middle of the arena. He then said, "The next section will be the final part of the chunin exam. It will be a tournament style matchup, but with a twist."

All eyes were on him, so he continued, "There will be eight fights, but there will be four pairs. Each match will have two main contestants fighting, and each main contestant shall have another ninja as back up. This is because we believe it will best simulate the teamwork of a real mission. The 'support' ninja will be allowed to interfere three times each. They may use one jutsu, or try to instigate one combo and then leave, they do not, however get to choose when they go in, that will be up to the main fighter."

He looked around and made sure everybody understood and then continued, "So if someone is eliminated as a main fighter, they will still be support. If for some reason a support ninja is permanently brought down, the main fighter will be assigned another support ninja. You DO NOT get to pick. Also, if a main fighter were to have to fight against his support ninja, both ninja will get new support ninja and half an hour to strategize, without knowing who the other's new support ninja is."

Everybody nodded. The proctor nodded and said, "The pairings are as follows: Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka, Kankuro of the dessert and Temari of the dessert, Dresdin and Bob, and finally, Gaara of the Dessert and Namikaze. Pairs are now encouraged to go upstairs and strategize. You will all be given a sound-proofed room…..Get Moving!"

Naruto looked at Gaara and pointed at a random room. Gaara nodded. Naruto opened the door and Gaara walked in, followed by Baki and Jiraiya. Naruto walked in last and shut the door. As soon as the door was shut Jiraiya said, "You have been given permission to tell Gaara who you are."

Naruto sighed in relief. Gaara looked an odd combination of excited and his usual dark self. Naruto flipped his hood off. Gaara then said, "so, under the concealing hood….you're wearing a mask and a skull cap…."

Naruto blinked and then took off the skull cap and pulled down his mask. He beamed at his friend. Gaara seemed to twitch. Then he started to laugh. It started small. Then it grew. Gaara was soon rolling around on the ground. Naruto thought he saw tears. "What the hell is so funny?"

Gaara looked up. Tears were indeed streaming down his face as he said, "I…giggle…thought that….HAHAHAHA….you….snort…..were going to….AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…attack… giggle…my village."

Naruto nervously started to laugh. This was scary as hell. Then he asked, "So, what is the plan?"

Gaara was still trying to get a hold of himself, so Baki stepped forward and said, "We have a month to talk this over and plan everything. Let's not worry about this for now. How about we go out on the town and celebrate as soon as…..he's done."

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Just doing this because I want to put a Naruto x Temari thing up. I like the pairing. I will still be updating Chasing Naruto, so don't worry. This is just really a demo to get some ideas going. Hope you enjoyed it.


	2. Chapter 2

DUAL FLAMES CHAPTER 2

REVIEWS

Usagi-sempai:

Hope you keep reading! I am glad you liked it! Your wait is over.

Lindon2:

Always nice to hear that!

**ON WITH THE STORY**

Temari was sitting on her bed. It was midnight before the big exam and she couldn't sleep. She couldn't have been nervous. That wasn't her style. So what was keeping her up? As she pondered this question and many others, a pebble hit her window. She thought it must have been a mistake, but then another pebble hit her window, and she knew someone wanted her attention. She walked over and looked outside. Gaara was standing outside looking in. She opened the window and leaned out of her window on the third story. "What are you doing out there?" she asked, "It is like midnight."

"I forgot my key," He responded, "plus I needed to ask if it would be okay if my partner here would stay over night."

The guy who always wore the cloak walked out from behind Gaara. Temari's eyebrow arched. Who the hell was this guy? Temari shook herself and walked downstairs and opened the door and then the front gate. Gaara and his 'partner' walked in. Gaara took off his gourd and the belt attached. The guy in the cloak took off his mysterious garment. When he put it down, Temari deadpanned, for under the identity-covering cloak, he was wearing a mask and skull cap. This guy did have stunning blue eyes however. The only other eyes she had seen with that shade were that Uzumaki brat. Could it be? She stood next to him and measured him. This guy was taller than her, where as Uzumaki was a squirt. She turned around and continued to ponder on his identity. Gaara looked at her with his eyebrow arched. That was when she noticed it. He had all sorts of bruises and scratches. Her eyes widened. "What the hell happened to you?" she demanded.

He simply replied, "Our training has been rigorous."

What kind of training could have left Gaara actually wounded? She shivered and then looked at this Namikaze fellow, could he have done this to Gaara? Namikaze's eyes seemed to smile, Temari tilted her head, the only person who she had ever seen do that was Copycat Kakashi. She sighed, for now she was even more confused. Namikaze chuckled. Then Gaara did something Temari had never seen him do before, he smiled. Then Gaara said, "You're room is down the hall the third door on the right."

Namikaze nodded and walked in the correct direction. Temari shook her head and then said, "I am going to bed."

Gaara nodded.

**THE NEXT DAY**

Naruto looked around himself. The sand's arena was about the same as the leaf's. It was large and had three covered seating areas. The only real difference was that the leaf's arena had trees, but this was just a sand arena. Perfect for Gaara. Baki was the proctor of this final exam. The half-masked man faced the crowd and then said, "It is our great pleasure to be hosting this set of chunin exams. To the many lords and noblemen here today, please enjoy all the drinks you want courtesy of the village council. Here today representing our village is our regent for Kazekage, the leader of the village council, Elder Chiyo. Here representing the leaf village is the hokage: Lady Tsunade."

The crowd roared. Naruto was getting excited. Then Baki continued, "The first match will be the mysterious Namikaze of the leaf village versus……Kankuro of the dessert, from right here in the sand village!"

Naruto teleported down into the arena in a swirl of leaves. Gaara appeared right next to him in a swirl of sand. Kankuro and Temari calmly walked down the stairs. When Kankuro arrived in the center of the arena, Naruto was practically jumping up and down. He pointed at Kankuro and shouted, "Get ready for the Namikaze hurricane with a little help from the sand!"

Kankuro let the crow unfold from his back and then said, "Let the horror show begin."

The crowd roared. Gaara and Temari jumped back on to the walls on the side of the arena to await the call for help.

Kankuro molded chakra and swirled The Crow above the arena. As it made a circle it dropped a barrage of bombs down on Naruto. Naruto made the agreed upon signal and Gaara jumped in to create a wall of sand. This wall blocked out all the fire and explosions. Kankuro twitched, he had forgotten about Gaara being this kid's backup. The sound of four sliding objects brought Kankuro out of his reverie. Four of his opponents were sliding toward him. They all kicked him into the each one of them said, "Nam-i-ka-ze"

When Kankuro was in the air he substituted himself with his second puppet. The real Namikaze appeared above The Black Ant. He was planning on kicking the puppet down. Kankuro smirked and dropped the illusion. The Black Ant opened up. Namikaze fell in. As The Black Ant fell to the ground, The Crow split apart. All of its limbs had unfolding blades. These blades all shot into the Black Ant and stabbed Namikaze. Kankuro shouted, "Secret black move: Iron Maiden!"

Shadow clone smoke oozed out of the improvised Iron maiden. Kankuro's eyes widened. He looked up, and nothing, side to side, and nothing, and then he turned around. Namikaze had formed a shadow clone and together they were swirling chakra into a ball. The chakra became visible. The clone grabbed his original and threw him at Kankuro. Kankuro rapidly made the appropriate signal. Temari jumped down and blew Namikaze off course. The man tumbled and lost control of the jutsu. Kankuro turned to his puppets and quickly and efficiently rebuilt them.

Naruto stood up and made an imaginary signal. Kankuro reacted by telling Temari to shoot a jutsu to block Gaara. Gaara made no move however than to dodge Temari's jutsu. Naruto pulled out a Demon Windmill shuriken and threw it at Kankuro. Kankuro dodged and the Shuriken dropped its own illusion by turning into Four shadow clones. One went opposite of the real Naruto, one went into the air above, the last two jumped and stood in a way that Kankuro was surrounded. They all threw a demon Windmill at Kankuro. Temari formed a column of wind around herself and her little brother to block all the different shuriken. Naruto smiled, Kankuro had used up all of his assistance jutsu. Naruto made a real motion.

Gaara made a ton of small sand bullets shoot at Kankuro. These didn't do enough damage to do anything more than bruise and disorient him. Naruto formed another shadow clone and made the rasengan.

He ran up and shoved his Rasengan into Kankuro's chest. As Kankuro was thrown back, spinning like a top in midair, Naruto shouted, "Ninja Art: Rasengan, the Spiraling Sphere!"

Kankuro landed and did not get up. The crowd roared as Baki called the match. Naruto looked out to the crowd and laughed. Then he looked at Gaara and shouted, "Hehehe, I won, I won, thanks for getting my back, Gaara!"

Naruto and Gaara ran back up into the booth. Baki watched the medics bring Kankuro off the arena floor. He then addressed the crowd. "Because one of the back-ups for the next match is currently being worked on, we must postpone the next match and move on. The next match up is….. the psychotic Gaara of the Dessert versus….. The apprentice of Lady Tsunade herself, Sakura Haruno!!!!!!"

The crowd roared. Gaara and Naruto walked down the steps with their opponents, Sakura and Ino. When everything was set-up, the traditional banter began with Gaara saying, "I must warn you, we are most definitely strong."

Sakura seemed to not hear, but she said, "Don't fall behind now, Ino."

Naruto and Ino jumped backwards onto the wall behind them. Naruto's eyes were glued to Gaara, he had to wait for the signal and then he would get a little fight in himself. Gaara uncorked his gourd. His sand fell out into the rest of the sand. Gaara then pushed chakra into his feet and dashed up to Sakura. He stopped up just barely short of arm's reach and began the infamous Sand Hell. Sakura had picked out the pattern of his attacks during the preliminaries. All of Gaara's hits missed. Naruto's jaw dropped, when had she gotten so strong? She then got within arm's reach and punched. As she punched she gathered chakra into her fist and then let it explode out. Her chakra control had to be precise, and it was. Gaara got nailed. He flew backwards across the arena. He hit the wall and made the signal.

Naruto teleported into the fight and formed threes shadow clones. They converged on Sakura and used some light taijutsu to disorient Sakura and then they did the 'skyrocket' combo. Two kicked Sakura into the air, then one jumped onto the back of one of the firsts and kicked her higher and then the real Naruto jumped onto and then pushed off the third clone and did a devastating uppercut right to the bottom of Sakura's chin.

Naruto dispelled his clones and jumped back onto his place on the wall. Sakura made a twirling motion in the air with her finger. Naruto looked at Ino, the girl was running down the wall, but not in time. Gaara was standing back up. He created two fists of sand, and swung the two together, smashing Sakura in between. Baki jumped in and quickly called the match. Baki lifted up his arm and a medic jumped down into the arena. They whispered to each other for a time and then Baki turned to the audience and proclaimed, "While Sakura spends a little time in the infirmary, we are glad to inform you that Kankuro of the Dessert has made a full recovery. The next match shall be…. The tomboyish Temari of the Dessert v.s. ….the mystical Dresden."

Dresden stood up. He brought his large staff to chest level and parallel with the ground. The stick levitated in midair when he dropped it. He jumped on and flew down to the stadium floor. When he reached the ground he jumped off and held his staff above his head. The symbols flickered to life. He slammed on end of the stick into the ground. The stadium shook. The crowd roared. Naruto turned to see that Temari was smirking. She jumped onto her fan and flew down slowly. As she hit the ground, she swung and closed her fan. The resulting air current blew Dresden off his feet.

Baki jumped out of the arena, signaling the beginning of the match. Dresden jumped up, pointed his staff at his opponent and shouted, "Feugo!"

Small lances of fire shot out of the staff. Temari rolled to the side and out of the way. She pushed some chakra into her feet and dashed at Dresden. She opened her fan and shot a guided tornado right at him. He jumped out of the way, pointed his staff at Temari and shouted, "Forza-"

Temari's tornado had turned around and got his back. He was spun around in the air for about thirty seconds at high speeds and then released. Temari shouted, "Summoning: Blade dance!"

A plethora of sharp objects hit Dresden 's body and then formed a new tornado, this time even bigger and wilder than before. Then Temari shouted, "Not Yet!"

Temari bit her thumb, and spread the blood from this bite in a long line along her fan. A weasel with a scythe appeared on the fan. Temari swung her fan, propelling her weasel into the gigantic tornado. The weasel spun itself and then using the scythe and its own chakra, cut the tornado in half. When all the arena's sand cleared, Temari looked to see that Dresden was still standing. He was holding up a charm bracelet on his right hand. It looked to have shield charms. Suddenly the charms turned red with heat and then melted. Temari was nearly out of chakra so she looked to Kankuro. Kankuro was still in bandages, but he was standing. He made what was left of the crow swing around the arena, dropping bombs everywhere. Dresden had avoided the blast by jumping back, but he had left his staff in the sand. Temari dashed to it first and grabbed it. She jumped out of his reach and with a kunai, slashed through all the symbols, thus destroying the pattern. She threw the staff back to him. Temari closed her fan, and teleported behind him. With the flat side of her weapon of choice, she swung and hit his head. Dresden dropped. Baki called the match. The crowd roared, and then Temari jumped on her fan and flew up to the box. She looked around; Ino Yamanaka looked terrified, Bob looked like he was considering murder, Gaara looked unsurprised, and Namikaze waved.

As Temari inwardly celebrated her victory, Baki introduced the next contestants, "Sakura Haruno has made a full recovery, so the next match will be the final match of the first round, It is…..Ino Yamanaka versus……Bob!"

The crowd didn't pay too much attention to the match, it truthfully didn't interest them, they all wanted to see Namikaze versus Temari of the Dessert. Naruto didn't really watch the current match either, because either way, the winner would face Gaara and lose….so he decided to talk with Temari. She was sitting in the back of the box, sipping on a water bottle. Naruto sat down, and started the conversation, "So…either way our match goes, we are going to have to face down Gaara. If I win, then Gaara is my teammate, so I have to pick a new one, if you win…well, Kankuro is in no shape to face down your brother. I think we should start strategizing."

Temari looked at him with awe…not of his idea, but his stupidity. Why would she reveal her techniques to the guy she was about to face? Eventually her unbelieving stare became too much for Naruto, so he walked away. He came up to railings. Gaara had been watching the match. Gaara whispered to Naruto, "This guy excites me. I want to face him."

Naruto shivered. Gaara was still working his sanity out. Baki called the match. Naruto looked down into the arena. Baki was once again speaking in his best announcer's voice, "The next match is between two of this competition's most anticipated match-up……The Powerful Namikaze….vs….The wily Temari!"

Temari jumped onto her fan and then flew into the arena. She looked expectantly at Naruto. Naruto jumped out into the arena. He pointed at her and shouted, "I vow to win!"

Temari responded with, "You can talk the talk, now let's see if you can walk the walk."

Naruto formed five shadow clones. They all ran in at Temari together. Temari simply swung her fan blowing the shadow clones out of existence and a ton of sand in Naruto's face. As Naruto hacked and coughed the sand out of his mouth, nose, and eyes, Temari set up her blade dance. Naruto felt the first shuriken cut him, then more and more. Naruto realized what was happening and pulled out some red chakra. He sent out a wave strong enough to destroy walls out from his body, unfortunately, this only caused the weasel's scythe attack to cut a little less deep then intended. Naruto's cloak had been destroyed. He looked down and saw that his blue Konoha jumpsuit had been sliced up pretty bad too. In fact, he saw a little bone from his chest. Then the pain hit. Naruto screeched in pain. As Temari watched, she noticed that his eyes had become red, with slits for pupils.

Naruto shouted, "Gaara, sand shower!"

Gaara jumped in front of Temari and formed several shurikens out of sand and sent them flying at his sister. Naruto knew there was only one way he could keep the match going. He looked up at Jiraiya. His master nodded. Naruto breathed in and out, and formed the tiger seal and brought out his red chakra. He felt demonic chakra form its cloak around him. Two ears and one tail formed. Gaara looked back and his eyes widened. He jumped out of the way. Naruto roared. The crowd became deathly silent. Temari remembered all the times she had seen Shukaku. She panicked and started to rapidly swing her fan. Naruto roared and let another burst of chakra stop her wind cold. He dug his legs and hands into the ground and threw himself at his opponent. Temari quickly shook herself and flew up into the air. She dodged several more chakra bullets. Naruto wound up his arm and threw a punch. The punch obviously didn't reach Temari, but the chakra hand flew towards her.

Naruto grabbed Temari right off her fan. Her fan collapsed to the ground and Naruto brought her right to his face. His red chakra was burning both her clothes and her skin. Naruto noticed this and threw her to the side. As Temari lay in the sand, she realized that she was going to lose. She raised her hand and shouted, "I withdraw from the match!"

Naruto roared. The crowd was deathly silent. This was the true power of the hidden leaf. Naruto looked up at the crowd. Jiraiya was bringing the tips of his fingers against his neck in a 'cut' motion. Naruto understood and shoved the red chakra back down. His wounds had been healed, but his clothes were in tatters.

Baki proceeded to calm the crowd down. As Temari began to walk up the stairs into the contestant's box, Naruto caught up with her. She jumped away and shouted, "Stay away from me!"

"Look, I think I owe you this….you want to know who I am right?" Naruto brought his fingers up to his mask and showed her his whiskers.

Temari's eyes widened. She shook as she asked, "Uzumaki?"

Naruto nodded and said, "Look the reason me and Gaara were picked as a team was so that my master could teach Gaara to control his beast. He has got the one-tail Shukaku. I have got the Nine-tailed fox. I can't control all the way to nine tails yet, but I can control up to two. Pervy sage has made it so that Gaara has beaten his beast into submission. You don't need to worry about him anymore."

Temari dropped to her knees. Gaara was finally in control. This was great news; it meant that she would no longer have to sleep afraid that the worst might happen. Tears streamed down her face in the realization that this was because of the dork beside her. She looked up at him, this was a miracle. Naruto scratched the back of his head. He looked around and then said, "Um…look, I wasn't supposed to tell you all that stuff, so I would really appreciate it if you would keep it on the down low, alright?"

"So that is why Tsunade doesn't want you to reveal yourself….."

"You figured it out?!"

"Haven't you?"

Naruto shook his head. So, even though he was powerful, he was still as dumb as dirt. Temari sighed. Then she said, "Tsunade wanted to test how well you have got control over your beast, and she can't do that if all your friends started freaking out about you being a host. Get the picture?"

Temari observed as the wheels in Naruto's head started to turn. She shook her head and asked, "Does that hurt you?"

"Does what?"

"Thinking?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he said, "Why don't we just go and watch the next match now?"

Temari snorted. She got up and walked up to the box, she looked into the arena. Bob and Dresden were waiting, and Gaara stood alone. Naruto gasped and jumped out into the arena. Gaara shook his head at the blonde's antics. Baki swiped his hand down which signaled the beginning of the match. Naruto jumped back onto the wall. Gaara put his palms into the sand and whispered, "Sand burial."

Tendrils of sand wrapped around his opponent, and then solidified. Gaara raised his opened hand into the air and then closed his fist. But when the sand should have condensed, it exploded. Bob was hanging in mid air, his entire body alight. Naruto charged a rasengan and dashed up to Gaara's opponent. The rasengan hit Bob dead center, and sent him flying into the sand floor. Gaara quickly buried the man in more sand. Gaara made the sand pile up upon the flame-man. The sand of moving sand filled the arena. Gaara's palms slammed into the sand as he performed his ultimate jutsu. "Massive Sand Burial!"

As the sand began to condense, It turned red, and melted together, turned white, and then into glass. Gaara was floating on a cloud of sand and observed from above. Bob burst from the glass. The entire sand arena had been turned into shards of glass. Naruto's eyes widened, the heat required for such an act was amazing. Bob shrieked and jumped into the air directly at Gaara. Gaara used what was still sand in the glass shards to make them all fly at Bob. As the shards hit Bob, they cut him and then melted into the wounds. This caused massive amounts of pain. Bob fell down to the floor, and then lost consciousness. Baki called the match.

Naruto and Gaara traveled up to the box. Baki then shouted out to the crowd, "Due to the massive amounts of repair needed, the arena won't open for two more days. I assure you that all of you out there will receive free admission. We will have the final match in two days, this gives you time to request any missions you have been thinking about to whichever village you please, and it will give time to the two contestants to strategize with their new partners, so, until then….good bye!"

Baki then poofed into the box. He looked around. He then said, "Due to the fact that one team mate must face the other, new teams have been picked out. Namikaze will team up with Temari, and Gaara, you're with Bob, he will be fully recovered in a day's time. Namikaze, Lord Jiraiya and Lady Tsunade wish to speak with you immediately. You will meet Temari at eight tonight at training ground 13, here is a map."

Baki handed Namikaze a map with a large red circle. He nodded and jumped off into the kage box. There Tsunade and Jiraiya were waiting for him. Jiraiya pointed to a door behind them and entered the room. Tsunade entered directly after. The door made a quiet whoosh as Naruto closed it behind him. Tsunade instigated the conversation with, "You have improved greatly Naruto. For the next couple months, you will be strengthening the bond between Leaf and Sand by staying here and performing missions. This is because we have new intelligence on the akatsuki…."

Naruto looked up and asked, "What is the deal?"

"They are moving quicker than Itachi had said," Jiraiya said, "In fact, they have already stolen a host from Stone. I am going to teach you for only a couple more months more and then I have to send you away…"

"To where?!"

Tsunade pulled out a scroll. It was a map of the elemental countries. As she unrolled the map farther, the continent ended, and a new one began. Tsunade continued, "This is a continent far away from the akatsuki, and where you will be hiding. We call it the West because its true name is unpronounceable in our language. You have a special relation to this land. I know this may come as a shock, but it has to deal with your parents."

Naruto's eyes widened. Then they closed, tears streaked down his face as he said, "You knew who my parents were this entire time?!"

The two sanin flinched, and then Jiraiya said, "Your father is named Minato Namikaze, or as you know him, the fourth hokage."

Naruto slammed his fist into the table next to him, it creaked from the force of the blow, and seeing as how it was made of stone, this was quite a feat. Naruto turned back to face his teachers and shouted, "WHY THE HELL WOULD A FATHER SEAL A DEMON IN HIS OWN SON?!"

Tsunade made a motion to speak, but Jiraiya stopped her and then said, "Look, Minato was my apprentice, so I know he didn't do it without reason, I think that he knew that if you were anything like him, you would be able to use it to your advantage. Are you going to be okay?"

"I am the son of the fourth hokage…. I can deal."

"You are so like him in that aspect…. Now your grades….well, its light and day, but you have his instinct and his nindo, and that is what matters most for a ninja. You will be great."

"What about my mom?"

Tsunade pointed to a small portion of 'the West'. Then she said, "She was named Kushina Uzumaki, and she was born here, in the Land of Eddies, her clan was an elite clan there, they are not known for a blood limit like the Hyuuga or the Uchiha, but for a school of fighting, you are going to journey to this land, and there, you will study this school of fighting. You will study with what is left of your family, but you won't meet your mother there….she is dead."

Naruto nodded and then said, "I understand my mission, and I will do my best, I have to go strategize for how to take down Gaara."

Naruto walked out of the arena and then jumped out into the city. He got his bearings from outside the arena and then found his way to a clothing store and bought a new blue jumpsuit entendre. He then bought a curtain and used it to cover himself up. As he walked out of the clothing store, he realized that it was half an hour until eight, so he jumped off to training ground thirteen.

Temari was waiting for him there. Training ground thirteen was full of rocks and sand and it had a small hill and a canyon with a river. Temari turned around to see him and her eyes widened, she asked, "What's wrong? Your eyes are red…."

Naruto wiped his eyes and then sighed. He wasn't in the mood for training. He stared away from Temari, and asked, "Can you keep another secret for me?"

Naruto sat down on a rock and Temari sat down next to him and said, "Look, you had the courage to stand up to my brother, knock some sense into him and set him in the right path. I owe you more than I could tell you. I will keep as many secrets as you have, tell me what's on your mind."

"In the same way that Gaara grew up shunned from society, I was shunned in my village, Gaara had some sort of family, and I had nobody. I suffered from loneliness," Naruto said, "I finally made friends and stuff and now I think I am on the road of recovery, but I didn't ever know who my parents were…until tonight, Pervy Sage and Grandma Tsunade told me…."

"Who were they?"

"Well, I probably shouldn't tell you, but as you know, I have a monster inside me as well as Gaara, the Nine-tails, it was sealed inside of me when I was an infant by the Fourth Hokage….as it turns out, The Fourth Lord is my father."

Temari gasped and tears started to fall down Naruto's face as he continued, "My own father sealed the demon that has ruined my life inside of me… Pervy sage said he did it because he trusted his son to be his greatest legacy and all that jazz, but… still, it doesn't make sense to me…. Can you tell me why it happened? You're smarter than me," Naruto stood up and shouted to the heavens, "CAN ANYBODY EXPLAIN THIS TO ME?! WHY WOULD HE DO IT?!"

Temari flinched. She didn't understand it either. She stood up next to him and made him sit down and then said, "Let me tell you what I think, I think that what makes a man is not the reaction to trauma, but their response, there is a difference. How are you going to respond to this, are you going to cry, or are you going to take this for what it is, a destiny you have been handed, I thought that you nindo was to never give up! DON'T YOU DARE GIVE UP!"

Naruto looked up at her, with awe in his eyes, she was right. He jumped up and clapped his hands together. "You're right, it is time to get down to business, I am going to get stronger, I am going to defeat the akatsuki and I am going to bring Sasuke back!" Naruto said, "Thank you! Let's get to the training; I need to get ready to take down your brother!"

**MIDNIGHT THAT NIGHT**

Naruto and Temari both were both laying on their backs, totally exhausted, and staring up at the stars. Naruto said for the thousandth time, "This might actually work! I just need to practice with the red chakra a little bit more, and then, I will win."

Temari nodded and then asked, "So, after this exam, what are you going to do?"

"I have been ordered to stay here and wait for someone to take me to the West to train with my mother's people. Pervy sage said he would train me until that happens."

Temari nodded. But what she didn't get was why she cared….

**THE DAY OF THE BIG MATCH**

Baki stood in the middle of the new arena, featuring only dirt instead of mounds of sand, the crowd all seemed to sit forward in their seats in anticipation. Baki then raised his voice and said, "Today is the final match of this set of Chunin exams. The contestants are as you know, Gaara of the Desert, hailing from Suna, and Namikaze hailing from Konoha. Will the contestants please make their way down here?"

Naruto and Temari jumped out into the arena, while Gaara and Bob quietly made their way down the stairs. Gaara and Naruto faced the crowd. The crowd roared. Naruto waved and Gaara's eyebrow arched. Baki slung his hand down, signifying the beginning of the match. Temari and Bob took their respective places. Naruto untied his headband from his neck and tied it around his head in his usual manner. Gaara looked at his friend questioningly and then Naruto explained, "These headbands signify more than rank, they signify respect one has for another shinobi."

Gaara nodded and tied his own headband around his head. Naruto smirked and filled the arena with shadow clones. The crowd gasped at this amazing display of pure chakra. Naruto began his assault on Gaara's 'impenetrable defense'. Naruto tried all manner of taijutsu on Gaara but nothing actually got through. A smirk crossed Naruto's face as he thought of an idea. He charged up six Rasengans and charged Gaara again. One Rasengan got through the barrier of sand, only to barely hit Gaara's shoulder. Gaara shouted in pain and jumped back, signaling Bob. Bob jumped in front of Gaara and unleashed a torrent of fireballs. These took care of most of Naruto's shadow clones, leaving only the real Naruto plus a few spares. As Bob jumped back to his place Naruto scanned the arena. A ball of hardened sand sat on the opposite end of the arena, which meant that Gaara was currently dominating the one-tail into submission. Naruto knew he had roughly a minute before Gaara would emerge with the power of a tailed beast and complete control.

Naruto stood completely still, reached deep into his chakra and yanked the red chakra up to the surface. The fox's cloak formed, one tail waved in the air, and two ears stood at attention. Naruto roared, and the crowd gasped. Then, Gaara emerged from his sphere. He looked like a mini-shukaku. Gaara was smiling in this form; it felt awesome to have such power at your call. Naruto dashed at his fellow host and began his taijutsu techniques. He clawed and kicked madly to no effect. Gaara then just grabbed and threw Naruto across the arena. From the dust cloud resulting from the destroyed wall, Naruto emerged. He looked down at his hand, this chakra nearly boiled his skin upon contact. He looked up at Gaara and said, "I don't know how much longer I can bear this…"

Gaara's mad smile died down a bit, and he said, "I can't keep this up forever either…."

"….so I guess this will all come down to…."

"….One final attack…."

Naruto formed his rasengan in the way that he and Temari had practiced, a regular blue rasengan formed inside a vermillion-like colored chakra. Gaara built up chakra in his chest and shot out a gigantic blast of pure wind chakra, obliterating anything in its path. Naruto blurred behind Gaara and pushed his Vermillion Rasengan right into his friend's back. Gaara flew across the arena, and then the rasengan expanded, forming a vermillion sphere in the middle of the arena. When the chakra went away, only the regular Gaara sat there. Naruto breathed in and out, deciding he could in fact go just an inch farther to win the match. Temari appeared in front of him, just a moment before he was going to dash in. She pulled his face up to hers, burning her hand in the process and said to him, "Don't let this chakra control you Naruto, something seems off about you when you use it… You control the fox, not the other way around… I really regret not stopping my brother when I could have, I don't want to make the same mistake with you. Let. The. Chakra. Dissipate."

Naruto stood back up on his legs and nodded; he forced the chakra back down into the seal and looked back to Gaara. He was standing up and waiting for him, with a smile on his face, this had been the most fun he had had in a long time. Naruto dashed towards his opponent, and they both punched each other on each other's face. They flew apart and landed on the dirt, about five yards away from each other. They stood back up and charged at each other again, this time, their heads collided. Their headbands fell off and both of them hit the dirt. They were completely exhausted. Both of them inched their way up to their feet and were planning their next move when Baki jumped in between them. He shouted so the crowd could hear, "The village hidden in the Sand and the village hidden in the Leaves have both decided that this was enough. This match will not continue. We don't want anybody to die here. Those of you who are curious as to who passed, there are four genin who have qualified for chunin here…. They are as follows: Namikaze, Gaara of the Dessert, Bob, and Temari of the Dessert. Congratulations on your promotions."

Tsunade and a sand councilman both appeared in the arena, Tsuande handed Naruto a chunin vest, and the sand councilman handed Gaara and Temari their sand chunin vests. Naruto and Gaara smiled at each other and then the two friends fell over and blacked out.

AUTHORS NOTES:

I hope you guys will keep reading, I will update this story and Chasing Naruto every other chapter, so look out for chapter twenty four of Chasing Naruto soon. Thanks for the reviews.

Peace mah doohs.

IPOD384


	3. Chapter 3

DUAL FLAMES Chapter 3

RESPONSES TO REVIEWS

King of the DamnD Yes, bob did graduate to chunin. Bob probably won't ever be seen or heard from again

Deidarakillersorry for the long wait, I had a lot of stuff going on, football and school and stuff

Fenrir89glad you enjoyed it.

REMEMBER TO KEEP REVIEWING, AND YOU WILL SEE YOUR NAME UP HERE!

**One month after the big match**

Naruto observed as the sand councilmen bustled about their room, handing out missions, debriefing returning ninja, and all the other tasks for running the village. He had been assigned to Gaara's team for the few months that he would stay here. In fact, Naruto had just been debriefed from his most previous mission not five minutes ago, and it was his turn to pick up the next round of missions. As he sat there thinking about how awesome it had been to take down a humongous mafia organization in the land of grass (his last mission) he heard his name called, "Namikaze, can you please come over here, we have an important mission for you guys this time."

Naruto started to vibrate with excitement. The councilman handed him a blue scroll with a gigantic 'B' on it. Naruto nodded his thanks and then walked out of the room. Upon exiting the room, he ran nonstop to Gaara's place to show them the next mission. He burst into the living room/kitchen and threw himself into a chair. Gaara was in the kitchen section of the room, and Temari was reading a magazine at the table. Naruto scanned the room for Kankuro, he wasn't there, so he shouted, "Kankuro! We got the next mission in the kitchen! Get your ass down here!"

Temari flipped through her magazine and sighed, while Gaara just continued to cook his eggs and bacon, it was only eight o'clock in the morning. How did Naruto have so much energy? Kankuro walked groggily into the kitchen, The Crow was dragging on the ground behind him, and yawned. He sat down and looked over to his brother and asked, "So, what is *yawn* for breakfast?"

"Whatever you decide to make," Gaara replied.

"Well, what the heck are you cooking?"

"Eggs and Bacon."

"Can I have some?"

"Remember how you got only yourself cheesecake last night?"

"It was sooo yummy."

"Now I am making breakfast for everybody but you."

Kankuro looked to his elder sister for back-up, but Temari pulled down her bottom eyelid and stuck out her tongue. Next Kankuro looked to Naruto for pity, who just continued to vibrate in place with a blue scroll in his hands. Blue scrolls meant 'B' missions. Kankuro stood up, but his jaw stayed in the same place as he said, "Wait a minute! We got a 'B' mission today?"

"I KNOW!" Naruto exclaimed, "ISN'T IT AWESOME?!"

Temari dropped her magazine and Gaara let some cooked eggs burn. Suddenly Temari and Kankuro were both standing behind Naruto looking at the scroll. Gaara shook himself and tutted at the burnt eggs. He threw them out and started from scratch.

Naruto opened the scroll and began to read it out loud, "In the Land of Earth, a terrorist named Deidara has been causing trouble by setting off some major explosions. The Land of Earth has somehow connected this missing-nin of theirs to orders from us. The Land of Earth has sent several squads of ninja to watch our borders, and then, after Deidara seemed to disappear with men wearing black cloaks with red cloud prints on them, those stone-ninja went AWOL.

MISSION: exterminate all Stone nuke-nin and get their bodies back to us BEFORE stone hunter-nins can get to them."

Gaara walked over to the table and gave Temari and Naruto a disposable bowl filled with eggs, bacon, sasuage, and hash browns. He took the final bowl for himself and walked upstairs and began to get ready to move. Naruto stuffed the entire bowl's contents into his mouth and down his throat in under two minutes and began to get his gear all set. Kankuro got his puppets all wrapped up and ready to go, his stomach growling the entire time. Temari was already ready to go, so she just picked up her fan and put it in her sash behind her back, and calmly began to eat her food. Ten minutes later, they were all running outside the village gate towards the Earth-Wind Border.

In two hours they had reached the mentioned area. Kankuro set to work setting up his many traps and gadgets he had begun to use, Naruto had five or so clones discreetly searching the area. Temari was setting up camp and Gaara was scanning the earth for any hidden presences. Gaara identified one squad below the surface and casually began to turn the rocks around them into sand. He then sent his third eye around to look for any other hidden enemies, he found one more squad hiding in a cavernous canyon to the east. Just as he was planning his next step Naruto and Kankuro stepped into camp. Naruto made a two sign with his right hand and pointed at Kankuro with his left, then Temari. That meant that they already knew where two squads were and knew how they would take care of them. Gaara held up two fingers with his right hand and then pointed at himself with his left and then at the ground and then at Naruto and then to the east, mouthing canyon. Naruto nodded and then ran off to the canyon to the east, Kankuro closed his fist, and they all heard screaming from about 100 yards north. Temari was suddenly gone and Kankuro walked off to get his prisoners ready for transport. Gaara forced his selected enemies to the surface with his sand. They all looked startled at being discovered, then Gaara made the sand that held them in midair cover only their arms and legs and crushed them. He then put them all down one by one and began to care for their wounds, so that they would live to give all the info that they had in Sand jail cells. Four unconscious stone-nin bodies flew into the clearing and then Naruto landed in the middle of them, beaming. He summoned a toad and the toad consumed each of the ninja, waiting to be summoned back in the sand village for their eventual regurgitation.

Kankuro dragged four men one by one into the clearing where they were also consumed by Naruto's toad. As they were waiting for Temari, the trouble started however. Temari's summon ran into the clearing and franticly pointed in the direction that Temari had gone. Naruto and gang quickly got the message and followed the weasel. As they arrived on the scene, Naruto counted four stone-ninja bodies, but no Temari. He then ran a bit farther and saw that Temari was hunched over on a knee, panting badly. Naruto ran up next to her and leaned down and asked, "What happened?"

She looked up at him, and Naruto saw a look of pure terror. She pointed in front of her. As Naruto began to look up, he heard a voice that he hadn't expected to hear, "Why if it isn't Dear Naruto? It has been a long time hasn't it?"

Naruto looked up. It was Orochimaru. Naruto let the red chakra bleed out of him. Orochimaru continued, "I guess I can play around for a bit, We'll see whether you've gotten stronger than dear Sasuke."

Temari watched as Naruto fell onto all fours and then whispered, "Give……Sasuke back."

As he said that, Red chakra began to swirl around Naruto. Kabuto walked out from behind a rock and said, "We can't just give him back, Naruto, don't you get it?"

The red chakra began to form the fox's cloak. Kabuto continued and said, "Sasuke came to us. You got too attached to him. Be a man and stop dwelling on the past."

Orochimaru interjected, "If you're so intent of finding out where dear Sasuke is, you'll have to force it out of me."

Naruto suddenly burst at Orochimaru and clawed at him. The blow sent Orochimaru flying backwards about a quarter of a mile. Kabuto stared at Naruto in wonder and then said, "You've grown into quite the jinchuriki, haven't you, Naruto?"

Naruto's fox cloak solidified. One-tail had formed. As Naruto stood there, Orochimaru walked back into the battleground, he then said, "My, now I have the urge to pit _my_ dear Sasuke up against Naruto."

"Don't talk about him like you own him," Naruto responded, "DON'T TALK ABOUT HIM LIKE HE IS SOME TOY YOU OWN!"

Two more tails formed, and Temari realized what that meant. Naruto was a freckle and a hair away from losing control. Naruto dashed up and fought with Orochimaru. They fought off and into the distance and past some rocks which blocked Temari's vision. There was an explosion of chakra, and Orochimaru jumped out of the resulting smoke. He lacked an arm, which was a start, but then a second explosion occurred, and the rocks blocking Naruto from sight were turned to dust. Orochimaru seemed to begin to throw up, and then a new body emerged from his old one. It was in perfect condition. Then Orochimaru said, "After all this time, you are still inferior to Sasuke."

Naruto seemed to collapse at that, Temari thought it might be all over, but then a fourth tail grew out. Naruto's eyes turned red. Smoke emitted from Naruto's chakra and then formed a ball of black chakra around him. Then it exploded too, creating a crater and throwing everything in a half-mile radius back. When Temari opened her eyes, Orochimaru was laying next to her, he was looking at where Naruto had been and he said, "This child….intrigues me to no end."

Temari looked at Naruto. He looked like what the kyuubi had been described as, but on the small scale, and with only four tales. It growled and Temari started to shiver in fear.

**Back in suna**

Jiraiya sat on the top of a building, watching some women in the onsen, and was giggling perversely. A sudden wind blew him off balance. He fell five stories and landed on his head. He shook himself off and said to himself, "That would seem to be a bad omen…."

He pulled out a scroll with a swirl print on it. He looked at it and the swirl went away. That meant that a fourth tail had formed on the fox cloak. Jiraiya's eyes widened, He knew that Naruto was on a border patrol mission, what could have happened? He rushed in the direction that he knew Naruto would be.

**With Naruto**

Gaara was watching in horror on the scene he had come upon. Temari was frozen in terror. Orochimaru and a mini-kyuubi were brawling it out in the middle of a gigantic crater. Naruto had let four tails form. He knew that to interfere would be suicide, but he had to get Temari out of the way. Kankuro was also staring on, with a look of desperation on his face. Gaara then said, "Go back to the village and alert Lord Jiraiya. I will take care of Temari, and hopefully Naruto can kill Orochimaru."

Kankuro looked at him and then ran off to get Jiraiya. Now if only Gaara could figure out how he would do it.

Temari knew that she should run, but she couldn't get out of the way. Her legs weren't working. Naruto then stopped moving, and stood up on his hind legs. Glowing balls of chakra shot out of his cloak and began to float in the air. His tails then pointed at his mouth. The balls of chakra then began to come together. As they mixed together, the resulting ball turned black. With a complicated back flip and jump Orochimaru put about twenty five yards between them. Naruto twitched and the huge ball of chakra condensed causing tremors in the surrounding area. Once it was the size of an apple, Naruto ate it in one huge bite. The resulting added weight made Naruto fall down onto his belly. Orochimaru seemed to chuckle, and Temari wondered what Naruto's next move would be if he couldn't take a step. Then Naruto's torso expanded, making him look like a ball with a fox head, four tails, and four legs. Orochimaru's eyes widened with realization, so he made some hand-signs and then summoned three gigantic door/walls. Temari turned around and began to crawl away. As she began to move, she found getting up easier and she started to run away. When she had gotten five yards away, Naruto released his attack. A bullet of red chakra flew towards Orochimaru's walls and then hit them. Upon contact the bullet let loose all of its energy, creating a beam of chakra twenty feet in diameter.

It instantly destroyed all of Orochimaru's jutsu and left him a pile of twisted pile of flesh. Kabuto flashed into position beside his master and then picked him up. Orochimaru crawled out of his mangled body once more, this time considerably weakened but unbroken. Temari gaped. "We should probably consider a tactical retreat," remarked Kabuto, "and make sure you heal."

Their bodies seemed to burn out of existence. Naruto roared. He turned to Temari. She looked him in the eyes and realized that Naruto wasn't in control any longer. She faced him directly and said, "Naruto, are you in there?"

Naruto growled in response.

Temari nodded and then said, "well, Naruto, you're certainly not in control…this could be bad."

If Naruto's eyebrows were visible Temari would have seen them arch, but one eye got bigger and the other got smaller. "Don't let the chakra control you Naruto," Temari demanded, "You control the kyuubi, not the other way around."

Naruto raised his claw as if to strike, and Temari shouted, "MAKE THE CHAKRA DISSAPATE YOU KNUCKLEHEHAD!"

Naruto stopped moving and something started to glow in the fox cloak. It started out a pale blue-green, but then it expanded, and became a deep and powerful blue. The cause floated to the surface, it was Lady Tsunade's necklace. It was glowing brightly and floating in the air. Temari watched it in surprise and then she noticed that her vision had turned the same color of the necklace. All of the surrounding landscape was different shades of that blue-green, with the exception of Naruto, who was still dark red. Temari felt power flow within her and then she said, "Retract you chakra, fox."

Instantly the fox chakra began to fade. In a matter of seconds, it was all gone and Naruto fell to the dirt, covered in his own blood. Then everything went back to normal. Temari remembered being happy that Naruto was back to normal, and the world turned black.

Temari woke to the beeping of medical machines. She sat up and instantly fell backwards, all of her muscles ached. She looked from side to side, Gaara and Kankuro were sitting by her. They stood up and called for a nurse. "What happened?" she croaked.

"You stopped Naruto," Gaara replied.

"Where is he?"

Gaara pointed to the bed next to hers and said, "Right over there."

Temari turned her head and saw that Naruto was sleeping peacefully one bed over, covered in bandages. She sighed, she didn't quite understand why she cared for him, but she did.

Then the figure of Lord Jiraiya walked into her frame of vision. He looked at her and said, "Temari, what you did was amazing, we only see one of your kind once a generation. I know this is a lot to take in, but you can command tailed beasts. You stopped Naruto's rampage single-handedly. It is quite the achievement."

Temari just stared, he was joking, wasn't he? Her, control tailed beasts? Not possible. Then Baki walked into her field of vision as well, he said, "I just got back from the emergency meeting."

Jiraiya seemed to twitch, and then he sighed and continued, "What you guys didn't realize is that your little fight was being watched by the Akatsuki. They sent their 'watcher' Zetsu. I stumbled in on him on my way to the scene. This means the Akatsuki knows that you can control tailed beasts, which they could use in their grand scheme. You have become a commodity, Temari. The Akatsuki organization is now after you, Naruto, and your brother…"

"This means that we have become pretty high up on their hit list," Baki interrupted, "So the village has decided that you're going to accompany Naruto on his training trip. As soon as Naruto recovers, be ready to leave."

Temari gaped. She had just become chunin, she was beginning to think about trying to become a jonin. Now she was going off to some far off country with Naruto for two and a half years?! It was unacceptable! "I can't go now, so much stuff is going well for me right now!" She argued, "I don't want to leave here to go train about stuff that I could do right here!"

"What Rikku is going to teach you isn't stuff that I can teach you, or anything you could learn here."

"Who the hell is Rikku?" Naruto interjected.

Everybody stared, it wasn't clear when he had woken up, but he was awake now. Jiraiya sighed and then said, "Look, Rikku is the one who will be teaching you all about the fighting school of the Uzumaki."

"Why can't I just stick with you?"

"I have to gather intelligence on the Akatsuki. I can't do that and train you."

"Am I that much of a pest?"

"It's not that. Naruto, I see you like a grandfather sees his grandson, besides, I will be writing to you all the time. And, I have a present for you."

Jiraiya handed Naruto a book with a plain black cover. Naruto looked at it and said, "I don't want one of your perverted books. They're disgusting."

"This isn't from Make-out paradise, it the first book I ever wrote, it is about…well…you'll figure it out."

Jiraiya then patted Naruto on the head and looked back at Temari. "You gonna take care of this knucklehead for me?"

"Somebody has to," Temari responded with an exhaled breath, "Or he will hurt himself and those around him."

Naruto pouted and looked the other way. Jiraiya smiled and then left the room. Once Jiraiya was gone, Naruto began to undo his bandages and to the surprise of everybody in the room, his wounds had healed. He noticed this and shrugged and continued on his merry way, getting tangled up a couple times in the process. Temari sat up and then stood up. She had to go and pack. On her way home, Gaara and Kankuro followed behind her, neither of them coming up with something to say. So they walked in silence.

**The next day**

Naruto stood at the agreed upon position and looked around, he was five minutes early. He dorked around for about a minute and then Temari showed up, with her fan, and a simple knapsack. At exactly noon (the agreed upon time) a woman with long, smooth red hair walked into their little café. She was wearing a red, long-sleeved tunic, and some patterned red silk pants that went halfway down her shin. She wore red pumps, and had red Wife-beater sunglasses on. To top it all off, she was casually slurping up an iced-mocha. Naruto instantly realized that she liked red. The new woman looked right at Naruto and Temari and said, "Right, so orange boy is Naruto and fan-girl is Temari. I am Rikku Uzumaki."

Tick-marks appeared on Temari's forehead at being called a fangirl, and Naruto nervously gulped. Temari stood up and said, "I may use a fan, but I am not a fangirl."

Rikku looked at her and then said, "My mistake, they your nickname shall be……Cranky-Pigtail-Girl, or CPG, for short."

Naruto stood up and asked, "Did you know my mother?"

"I know a lot of people who are mothers, orange-boy."

"Did you know Kushina Uzumaki?"

"Oh….I finally get what that bastard Jiraiya is up to. I don't take students anymore, he can kiss my ass. You tell him that."

"Answer the question."

"Or you'll what?"

Jiraiya appeared next to Rikku at that exact moment. He nonchalantly said, "Ah, I see you met my two young friends here, that saves me the trouble of introductions."

Rikku turned on him and said, "You didn't tell me you wanted me to teach them! I am retired from the Ronin business, too much blood. I am not doing it."

"You owe me."

"Not that much! I am not going to teach them the Uzumaki moves, I could set them up with a great teacher, but I don't do this stuff anymore."

"They need to learn from the best."

"And you think that I am the best?"

"We both know that you're the best there is."

"I am not doing it! End of discussion. Even if he is Big-sis's kid, I am not going to do it!"

Naruto's eyes widened, she was his aunt? Temari didn't feel very comfortable being here at all. Then Jiraiya said, "Besides, somebody we both know is after him."

"Oh, who would that be?"

Jiraiya whispered something into her ear. She dropped her mocha at the mention of this person's name.

"He is still alive?!"

"uh-huh, it has proved difficult to kill him."

"I don't really have a choice do I?"

Jiraiya shook his head. Rikku then sighed and motioned for Temari and Naruto to get up and follow her. Naruto obeyed and Temari did so warily. She did not trust this woman. They left the village at that moment, and travelled to the nearest port city. That city was called Talins, it was a wealthy little city on the coast of the land of wind, and its culture was an odd mix of the West and the ninja world. Rikku brought them to a little warehouse on the docks to arrange a ride, while she was inside making who-knows what kind of deals, Naruto and Temari sat outside, Temari piped up, "Do you think that this lady will actually be able to teach us? I have only known her for a day, and I don't like her."

Naruto shrugged and replied, "If dealing with her is the price that I have to pay to get strong enough to bring back Sasuke, then that is what I am going to pay…"

As Naruto finished his final thought, Rikku walked out of the warehouse, she was surrounded by thugs of all kinds, and she pointed at Temari and Naruto and then said, "Sic 'em."

Naruto jumped to his feet, he had guessed that this would be too good to be true. He quickly counted thirty thugs and went to work. He made fourteen clones and entered hand to hand combat with the first fifteen thugs he saw, and Temari he assumed would take care of the rest. She did, with one swift swipe of her war fan. The fight was over in less than thirty seconds. Naruto turned to his supposed aunt and screamed, "WHAT THE FUCK?!"

Temari kept her fan out, if nothing more than for intimidation. Rikku said, "They didn't want to give me a ride….so I told them that if they didn't agree, that I would call in my bodyguards. They walked outside to humor me, and you kicked their asses, it was a poorly executed ass kicking, but none the less effective."

"Why the hell did you say Sic 'em then?"

"To mess with the CPG."

Temari's jaw dropped. She would be spending the next two and a half years under the tutelage of this…hag?

"How rude," said Rikku, "to call me a hag. Can't you come up with something a little more biting?"

Naruto's eyes became slits as he said, "She didn't say anything. I don't know what you're talking about."

Rikku smiled at Naruto, and said, "Now, we may be able to hitch a ride on this here sailing ship."

Naruto shook his head, and sat down on the dock and brought out the book that Jiraiya had given him. He began to read the book. Temari just glared at the last spot she had seen Rikku standing in. Temari had wanted to ask Naruto about why he had lost control when he had seen Orochimaru, but she was having trouble finding the right words. She decided there was no way to go about it than to be blunt, "Naruto, why did you go nuts when you saw Orochimaru the other day?"

Naruto stopped reading, and his eyes became dark. He put down the book and said, "Look, you know that Sasuke ran away from the village, right?"

Temari nodded, so Naruto continued, "He did it because he decided that Orochimaru could make him more powerful than the village could, which would get him closer to his goal of killing his brother. I got a chance to fight him one on one, to bring him back, and we fought and I lost. I wasn't strong enough to bring him back and now, I will do anything short of abandoning my village to bring Sasuke back, I made a promise of a lifetime, and that is my nindo, I never go back on my promises."

Temari could see and hear the anger and the hurt in Naruto's face and words. She felt also a feeling of guilt rolling out of his gut, like he blamed himself for the whole thing. It didn't seem fair. "You made that promise to that Sakura girl, right?" Temari asked.

"Yeah."

"Why do you like her so much?"

"I honestly can't even remember, I just always have, and I do still like her."

"She didn't do anything to keep Sasuke from running. She is relying on you to be strong for her, and I think that that is pathetic."

Naruto looked like he had been slapped and was about to say something, but thought better of it, and thought harder on Temari's words. "That may be so….but it is still my nindo."

Temari huffed at the thought of some guy doing that for her, she didn't need somebody to do that for her. But at the same time she felt herself oddly jealous of that Sakura girl. What she didn't get was why. Why did she want the approval of Naruto so badly?

Rikku walked out of the warehouse at that exact moment. She was smiling like she had won the lottery. A small man walked out behind her and was rubbing his hands together nervously. He looked at Temari and Naruto and flinched, Rikku must have told him what they had done to his thugs. Rikku made a 'follow me' motion to her two apprentices. They stood up and followed Rikku and the nervous man around on the docks until he pointed to a big boat. Rikku pointed to the ship and said, "Here is our way to the Land of Eddies. Time to jump on."

They walked up the on-ramp of the ship and followed Rikku. She led them to a room and walked in. There was one bed. She sat down on it and then looked at her apprentices quizzically. "What are you guys doing up here?" She asked, "You are sleeping down under the deck, with the crew."

"WHAT?!" Naruto exploded.

"You," Rikku pointed at Naruto and Temari.

"Sleep," Rikku made a motion of sleeping.

"Down," Rikku pointed down.

"With the crew," Riku pointed at a passing sailor.

Temari looked at the nearest wall and briefly considered banging her brains out. She shook herself of the thought and turned around on her heel and exited the room. Naruto sputtered after her, "W-w-wait just a m-m-minute, I think she is j-j-joking!"

Rikku shook her head and Naruto just stared at her, waiting for her to say, "Just kidding." Or "Psyke!" or "jk….jk." she said none of those things. Naruto nodded and then opened her window and threw her precious shoes out it. Then he stuck out his tongue and gave her the finger on his way out. Temari was waiting outside and once Naruto closed the door, she gave him a hi-five. They went downstairs and found their quarters, they were supposed to share it with eight other people. Naruto gave them adequate reason to find other sleeping arrangements. (He threw one of the crewman overboard.)

Naruto had the feeling that it was going to be a long two years.


	4. Chapter 4

DUAL FLAMES CHAPTER 4

Author's notes

heya guys I got a really great review for the first draft of this chapter, so I redid it with a bit more of my classic IPOD384 omph. Sorry for messing with you guys, it was not intentional, but I do have some standards to keep up on my end, and that first draft was terrible, almost as bad as the first draft of chasing Naruto...almost. Anyways keep reading and pretty pretty please review it will make the story better, because if I get three awesome reviews and one bad one, I will still redo the chapter, thanks again

IPOD384

**ON THE BOAT...**

Naruto had a little bit too much on his mind now that things had settled down on the boat. This total bitch was his aunt? He didn't like her and he wanted answers, and wanted them bad. But she had somehow read Temari's mind, and he didn't like the idea of her getting in his head, he had to come up with a good way of keeping her out. Then an idea hit him. This one time, when Naruto and Jiraiya had accidentally gotten on the wrong side of the law, in order to escape from the ninja guards, they had stolen the clothes of some civilians and walked out of the town completely unchallenged. This was because they were looking for two visiting ninja, not two civilians. So what he could do was take some sailor's clothing and face with a disguise and sneak up on her, and then make her answer once he had her in a corner. "What are you plotting, fox-boy?" Temari inquired.

"I hate that name and you know it," Naruto responded, "and I am going to get some freaking answers from our teacher."

Naruto let Temari on to his plot and she thought that it was worth a try, so they kidnapped some of the passing sailors and tied them up and took their appearances. They marched up to Rikku's room and knocked on the door. Rikku opened the door and smiled and said, "What do my not-so-clever students want with me now?"

She then flicked them both in the foreheads and they lost their disguises. Naruto had been in this fight before, so he knew exactly what to do, he created three shadow clones and had one tackle Rikku back into her room, one lead Temari into the room, another clone make sure that Rikku was incapacitated and then he could close the door. After he did so, he turned around just in time to see the petite fist of Rikku aimed right for his head, so he used his left hand to bat it away right as the clone who had taken in Temari kicked the woman's legs out from under her. He punched at her with his right, but right before his blow struck her body blurred and disappeared, then reappeared five feet away, she shouted, "What the fuck are you doing blondie?"

"I want answers! Did you really know my mother Kushina? Are you really my aunt?"

"I guess I can humor you, No, I did not know your mother, but yes, I really am your aunt."

"If your my family then why didn't you come and take care of me when I was left without parents? Why would you abandon your own nephew?!"

"Look, kid, I didn't know about your mom until five years after you were born, she was kicked out of our clan due to her choice in marriage. It isn't typically allowed for Uzumaki women to run away with ninjas. The only reason I am allowed to acknowledge you at all is because our entire clan with the exception of me was totally wiped out when you were five years old. We are all that is left, so dash all those hopes of a real family kid, because if you really value family, then I am all you got, and trust me, once you get to know me, you won't want anything to do with me."

"Are you kidding me? I am the son of the fourth hokage! I don't need a huge family, I just need those who are close to me, and I guess I was hoping that you would be a part of that, but it is your choice. I just...wanted to know."

"Well now you know, even if our "family" was still alive they wouldn't be allowed to even look upon you on penalty of death...sucks to be you."

"I don't even understand what Pervy Sage thinks that you can teach me, I mean, I was totally winning that fight, what could you possibly do to me that I can't overcome?"

"Oh no you didn't!"

Temari interrupted, "I think he did. And I think I might want a piece of you too."

Rikku stared at the two of them and then let loose. She knocked Naruto through a wall, and before Temari could even realize what was happening, she had gotten knocked out cold with a swift chop to the back of the neck. Naruto, however, came back with a vengeance. He barreled through the hole in the wall with five clones and three of them had Rasengans charged. They surrounded Rikku and went for the kill. Rikku stood straight up and folded her hands over her chest and then shot her arms out sideways, which sent a wave of flame in all directions. Naruto managed to get out of the way only to have Rikku throw some metal rings at him. They were small by all appearances, but then they grew big enough for Naruto to stand in. They zapped a little electricity between them and then set off after Naruto. He dodged and jumped out of the hole and ran down a hall, his goal was to retreat and regroup. Whatever trick he tried, however, whether it was shadow clones, hiding, camouflage, or even throwing other people into the rings, nothing stopped them they just kept coming. Eventually he ran into a crowded room and tripped on somebody, and the rings caught him. One ring was as it turned out slightly smaller than the other so Naruto was trapped in a ball of sorts. It was a ball because if Naruto tried to get out, he got zapped by electricity. The ball was big enough for him to stand, but rapidly became smaller so that all he was forced into a fetal position.

Rikku found the ball and grabbed onto it and dragged him out of the room of spectators and into her cabin where Temari was similarly imprisoned. "Look," Rikku said, "I guess I should...ap-apo-apolo urgh...you know what I mean. The way I have treated you was....wroh-wron... you know what I mean."

"ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID?" Naruto shouted, "HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO LET FOURTEEN YEARS OF PAIN SLIDE IF YOU CAN'T EVEN APOLOGIZE CORRECTLY?!"

Naruto felt the red chakra creep up inside him. Riku watched his eyes turn red with slits for pupils. The red animalistic eyes made everything suddenly click. This kid was a host, a Jinchuriki. "Oh," she said, "That is why the Akatsuki is after you and you have these family issues, kid why didn't you tell me you were a Jinchuriki?" she turned to Temari. "Wait, are you a Jinchuriki too?"

Temari shook her head and said, "Akatsuki is after me for a different reason. It is some sort of ability I have, I can control Tailed Beasts. I don't know how to use it yet, but I think that what you've done to us makes me really doubt that you would be so sudden to change your perspective on us, and while I understand what your saying, my brother is a Jinchuriki, so I can sort of fathom Naruto's pain."

Rikku's eyes widened, "I can see why they sent you here," Rikku said, "If that organization is after you two then I guess that could even make the West seem tame."

"Let me loose!" Naruto growled.

Rikku snapped her fingers and the rings let them fall down and then retracted into her coat pocket. "Look, guys...you need to understand a few things about the West. It is not like the Elemental Nations over there, ninjas are not common, the Uzumaki clan was all that there was, and we were few. Ninjas were exterminated because of some bad publicity a couple years back, but they were a necessary part of the Land of Eddies, and now...they want ninjas again, but nobody is willing to come there, when they find out about you guys... you're going to be dragged into the terrible war that plagues the west. There is no semblance of order, and if you two get dragged in, the Land of Eddies would use you to win the war, and they would squeeze you for all that your worth. Way back, like fifty years ago, the Old Empire fell. The west was thrown into chaos, for the legions were no longer there to protect them from their neighbors or themselves. The land is ruled a mob of petty warlords that call themselves Kings. A place can only be called safe if you can have the biggest stick, and you two right now would be formidable sticks, but once you are trained in the Uzumaki ways, if the government gets their greedy paws on you, it will be like they brought guns to a sword fight.

"What I think we are going to have to do is start your training in complete secret and then, once you have a little experience, we will start to do missions. Once we have enough money, and can sustain ourselves without help then, we can be more open. Once we are more open...they will come after you, not in a way of battle, but in a way of promises, and they can give you many good things, but what I want you to understand is, out here, you are not sworn to protect and serve your village, you will be mercenaries, or as we call them out here, Ronins. Ronin is a special blend of ninja and samurai, you will continue to learn ninjutsu, but you will also learn other things, like the code... and how to use weapons a tad bit more effective than kunai. I am sorry for the way that I treated you, but let it serve as the first of many lessons, nothing is a given in the West, not anymore. Go and take a room nearby, as I understand, you have already taken over the hull, but it might be easier on the crew if they had a place to sleep again. The two rooms to my left are some rich merchants who have no way of defending themselves, welcome to the Ronin life... it isn't as romantic as many think it is."

Temari wanted to let all of this information sink in, so she left to claim a better room, but as Naruto walked out he said, "I need to sort some things out, but we are not done talking about my mom, or you, not by a long shot."

Sooner than anybody expected they were landing in a port called Aqua and were off to a place Rikku called 'the fort'. The journey was peaceful until they came upon a farm that had been raided. Rikku stopped them and said, "This is kind of what I mean, this was no doubt a prosperous farm, and it no doubt had quite a lot of food and money, so maybe ten guys got together, overpowered the men of the household, took what they could, burned what they couldn't, and I don't see any women, which tells me that they were taken back with them to where ever they had started, no doubt being used as slaves. This is too commonplace around here. Welcome to the West."

Naruto just stared and then asked, "How the hell is this place safer than the Elemental Nations?"

"Itachi Uchiha isn't after you here. That guy is nigh invincible with that special Sharingan of his. Trust me that guys is total hax."

"What the hell does that mean?" Naruto asked.

"It is a term that implies that he is somehow cheating reality with his powers. It originated from some trading card game which spawned a boardgame which spawned a sort of interactive game which then produced some sort of majorly multiplayer game and trust me you haven't played it. World of something or other, I don't remember."

Eventually they got passed the gruesome ex-farm and arrived at their destination. Rikku described it as a fort/castle. Temari pointed out all the major features to Naruto. It had a main wall that was in the shape of a square and a total of four hundred yards long, guard towers at every corner, the battlements on these walls left room for archers to fire while avoiding most damage. The main courtyard on the inside was divided up into four ordered areas. Each had a forge, medical tent, space for soldiers/practice ground, and a kitchen. The nearby lake in the mountains had an aqueduct to supply fresh and clean water and the surrounding areas were rich with fruit trees and wild game. In the center of the courtyard was a large tower. It was eight stories tall and throughout the sides had slits for archers as well, the roof appeared to accessible because it had the same sort of slit areas as the battlements. The eighth floor had no slits to speak of, but the sixth and seventh had glass windows which appeared to be removable, and predictably replaced with some stone or metal from the inside.

Naruto nodded carefully, and then it sort of dawned on him that they would actually be living here for the next two years. Rikku led them inside and locked the gates behind them. The first level of the central tower was a lobby area where people could no doubt refer others to different areas of the fort. The second level was all books of all kinds and colors, they seemed to be arranged in some peculiar way. The third and fourth level were a scroll library, the third being a more history and literature library and the fourth being a plethora of ninjutsu and genjutsu. The fifth floor was a hall of armor, with all sorts, varying from leather to chain mail to plate and there seemed to be some very odd kinds, that were not just for what Naruto had identified as Samurai/Knight armor, it seemed to be something different entirely. The sixth floor was designated Naruto's living quarters, the seventh, Temari's. The eight floor was the armory, minus the armor, meaning, it was a room filled to the brim with sharp-n-pointies in tip top form.

After the tour, Rikku took them back out to the courtyard to cover the basic concepts they would cover. For the first four weeks of official training, they would be learning some ninjutsu based on their elemental affinity. Naruto was quickly tested and it ended up he had a fire affinity. As they got going Rikku brought out a scroll and summoned a toad. She whispered something to it and it poofed away and then back in maybe fifteen minutes. It spat out two scrolls and then left. Rikku handed the red one to Naruto and the light blue one to Temari. Naruto opened his, it read:

_Dear Naruto,_

_ I am glad to hear that you made it to the West in one piece. I bet your already meeting all of those exotic Western women, I am so jealous, if you every have any great stories I could use for my research please let me know, I want to know all the juicy details. Anyway I heard that you made some sort of a truce with Rikku for now, but I think that you'll like her as you get to know her. Anyways I am having a rather hard time with tracking down the Akatsuki, and Rikku isn't exactly "good" at ninjutsu, so I have prepared some new jutsu for you to master, and seeing as how we both have a fire affinity, I know just the jutsu to start you off. It is called "Dragon Flame Bombs", and it is one of my favorites. I hope that you notice the diagrams after the initial learning of this jutsu for a Rasengan combo that I am particularly fond of. It doesn't have a name, but I am sure that you can come up with one, let me know what you come up with. _

_ In order for you to learn to use elemental chakra, first you have to learn how to manifest it, which means form it, okay? If you have trouble with this concept, I am sure that Temari can help you. So once you understand how to form Fire chakra, it is a simple act of weaving the symbols and then following the proper motions. I know that you can master this in no time at all, after all, you mastered the Rasengan in a week, but don't try to practice the Rasengan combo near anything flammable, it won't be pretty, and Rikku might kill you if you piss her off, and burning down her home just might do that, so please, if anything, practice around water. So the instructions are below and learn fast and grow strong._

_Your sensei,_

_The Gallant Jiraiya_

Naruto immediately went over to the nearby pond to start his practice. He had it down in a week and as it turned out the combo was to shoot some fire balls into the air and then cause them to explode quite suddenly by shoving a Rasengan into the general area of the fireballs. It caused quite the explosion, and Naruto ended up destroying his favorite jacket in the process.

Temari's scroll had been a list of wind ninjutsu from the sand village jutsu library. It had not contained any note like Naruto's had, but Temari did see a kanji symbol for love in red on the back of the scroll, which she took as a little note in of itself from Gaara. After about a month of just jutsu training, Rikku decided it was time to increase the weapons arsenal of her trainees to "something more than ninja stars and kunai." She called them up to the eighth floor.

Rikku let them absorb all the weapons that surrounded them, Temari found a small fan that had hidden blades, she enjoyed herself by playing with it a little, then Rikku asked for her to hand it over, which she did, and Rikku put it on a table in the center of the room. Naruto had found a long knife with a hand-guard on it. He mimicked Rikku and set it on the table next to the mini fan. Then he began to wander around anew and he found all sorts of cool toys, some hidden blades that attached to your arm, some very nice kunai but he became entranced by one set of weapons. Two long katanas, stacked side by side on a rack. He just stared at them, because he felt something in the back of his head call to them. He needed to touch them. He reached out and felt the cool steel under his hand and his vision darkened for a moment, and when the light came back, he was standing on some castle ramparts, much like the ones on the fort.

An entire mob of angry and armed men were also there, both on the walls and in the courtyard, they were surrounding a single man. He wore a armor much like the odd armor that Naruto had seen downstairs in the tower, and he had two katanas of similar proportion to the ones Naruto had just touched on his back. He jumped into the air and landed on guard tower with his feet close together, knees pointed out and his hands out perfectly sideways to keep his balance. Naruto could tell that he was a ninja, but what he didn't get was why this man was wearing Samurai amor, surely it would just get in the way. But then the fight began, the man used all sorts of amazing ninjutsu, then switched to using his blades to carve away a crowd and then he attatched the hilts of the two blades together and combined his ninjutsu and his kenjutsu to make an ultimate attack, fire blazed and when it all cleared, the solitary ninja was standing alone in a crater, his two blades still on fire.

Naruto jerked back reflexively from the katanas but he the vision hadn't taken no for an answer, so when the light faded and then came back again he was back in the armory, on his ass, and he had knocked over an impressive rack of weapons in his backwards jump. Rikku and Temari were staring at him in confusion and then Rikku looked down at his hand and her jaw dropped. Naruto's left hand had gained a tattoo. It was a "western style" sword which pointed out from his wrist to his knuckles. Rikku had grabbed his hand and was studying it quietly and then walked over to the rack and tossed Naruto the two swords. "Those two swords are very special," Rikku said, "you don't choose them, they choose you, and that is what they have done, Naruto. You shall from this day forward wield the Dual Flames. That is their name, got it memorized?"

Naruto nodded subconsciously and then said, "Wait, where are the sheathes? They aren't on the rack with them."

Rikku laughed and said, "Look, those two have quite the history with the Uzumaki family, I would just be glad that they didn't kill you for touching them, it has happened before. They have a sling that will fit over your back nicely, they will both stick up over your right shoulder, and once we have everything here all sorted out, we can begin to teach you how to use them."

Naruto nodded and found a chair by the big center table and examined his new weapons. They were not polished, but they were sharp as hell, Naruto had barely touched the blade and he had cut himself. Temari eventually found herself staring thoughtfully at a large scythe attached to heavy amounts of chain with a heavy mace at the opposite end of the scythe. "That is called the Kusarigama," Rikku said. "It is typically used to reach over shields and to destroy enemy armor, I can teach it to you, but it will be different from your fan. It requires a different mentality."

Temari nodded, but picked up the Kusarigama anyway. Temari felt the light of the room go black, and then she saw that she was in the middle of an arena floor. Two fighters were squared off against each other. They were both in full plate armor and were circling around each other. One had black armor and the other had green. The one in black had the Kusarigama and the one in green had an impossibly large war ax. The black fighter started to twirl the mace end of his weapon on the left side of his body while he held the scythe in his right hand. He then cast the mace at the green fighter right as his opponent began to swing his mighty weapon. The chain wrapped around the ax and then the black fighter heaved on the chain, bringing the ax out of the other man's hands and making it veer off course. The green fighter jumped back and brought out a knife. The black fighter started to swing his mace again, feinted throwing it and dashed up to the other man and brought the scythe down at the proper angle to penetrate armor, killing the green fighter. The light grew dim again and Temari found herself right where she had been, but she too had a new tattoo of a western sword similar to Naruto's.

Rikku was gaping at her and then said, "What just happened to you two was a right of passage for Uzumakis, so I expected it with Naruto, but why would you get one too?"

Temari shrugged and said, "I really don't know what is going on anymore, I decided on the boat over here that I am just going to roll with it."

Naruto nodded sagely at her newly shared perspective. He was just about at that point too.

Naruto and Temari were taught to utilize their new weapons with nice speed. Naruto mastered the fist three forms of his Dual Flames quite quickly, and Temari mastered the motions required to wield her rather spastic weapon. It was what Rikku called "The Uzumaki effect." it meant that all the people who had used that weapon in the past quite quickly poured their experiences with the weapons into them so that they could master it with unnatural speed. Rikku was one day enjoying watching Temari whip twenty of Naruto's shadow clones all at once when she realized that it had already been two months. It wasn't that nothing was really happening, but it was all training, all day, with no almost no breaks and it was all muscle memory training, so it was pretty much the same thing all day long. They were ready for the next level, taking missions.

Rikku shook herself and then said, "Hey guys, why don't you just go upstairs and change out of your ninja clothes, we won't need them for a long time, I want you to go upstairs and find the new undershirts and compression shorts I left for you, meet me down in the hall of armor for your next briefing."

Naruto did as he was instructed and dashed upstairs changed into what he was asked to but kept his headband. Two individual sets of armor awaited them. Naruto couldn't help but stare at Temari when she came down. She was really good looking in her newer, tighter clothing. He couldn't help but notice the way that her compression shorts sort of hugged the curve of her rear and what the tight shirt did for her breasts. He noticed all that in under two seconds, but he couldn't help but question his sudden interest in Temari's looks, he had practically been rooming with her for nearly six months now. When he stopped looking at the ground and looked back up at Rikku, he noticed she was smiling lecherously. Then she looked over at Temari and then back at him and winked. Naruto started to freak out, _it is like she can freaking read my mind!___He thought to himself. "Maybe," Rikku said, "If I can, you'll never know..."

Naruto's eyes widened and then he looked at the ground and tried to empty his mind of all thought, it didn't work. But then Rikku shook herself and said, "Okay, so here is the big point of your training. You are supposed to take the best of both worlds here, you will combine ninja with the West. It should be an interesting experiment to say the least. The Uzumaki clan did it for the longest time, but well, look where they ended up, six feet under, but no pressure. Anyways... one of the biggest parts of the west is the armor differences. Eventually you will work up to the Uzumaki armor that you can see around you, but for now, we can worry about just getting you to wear and take care of your basic leather and chain mail armor, okay?"

Naruto and Temari nodded. Then Rikku motioned to the two armor sets nearest to them, one was orange and black the other was blue and black. She called Naruto over to her and he obeyed without question. "Okay, the thing with chain mail is that it is rather loud when it isn't properly oiled, so when I give this stuff over to you, it is on you to find the time of day each and every day to clean it. I have personally made these sets of armor, and now you are ready for the next level of your training. You will be running missions. I will take the money you earn from these missions to finance the ronin operation that we will be starting up here and once we have made a name for ourselves, then we can make ourselves available to the general public. Okay?"

Naruto looked over at Temari, she nodded to him, so he nodded to Rikku. Rikku started them out by helping them with their mail shirts. These shirts were made to cover all of one's torso, and all the way down one's arms. Once they had that on, Rikku showed them their main armor. It was mostly leather, but it was also mail in places. Rikku started them out with their spaulders. Both of their spaulders were black, and they attached like an 'X' on their backs and fronts. They were tightened by buckles and made to be worn over the mail. Naruto got an orange cuirass. It covered his torso and fit right over the spaulder buckles and the chain mail. It was hardened so it would turn away most blades but leave a bruise on anything swung with power behind it. On the back it had the red swirl that Naruto had on all his clothes. Temari got a similar cuirass but hers was blue with a suna symbol on the back. Next they got chain mail pants, which were covered in hardened black leather to silence the jingling. Next Rikku handed them a set of "greaves" which were almost knee high and buckled on on three places. Temari guessed what was coming next and grabbed two bracers for her fore-arms, which served two purposes, extra armor and to silence the mail. Naruto followed her lead and then went a step farther and picked up some orange, fingerless gloves. Temari found her pair which were blue.

Rikku crept up behind Naruto and took off his headband. He turned around and said, "Hey! I worked hard for that! Why are you taking it?"

"Because for now, it will only get in the way, you will get it back, I promise, but not for a while. Right now, you need to get used to wearing this," Rikku said, and then she shoved a hood that attached to the back of his cuirass. Naruto looked at it and then at Rikku and said, "And, how will this thing not get in my way?"

Then Rikku reached into the hood and grabbed something. She slid it down over Naruto's face. It was a mask with holes for his eyes to look out of and another for him to breathe with. She gave an identical one to Temari and then showed them a mirror. The hoods had already hidden their faces, but these masks were meant to be seen. Naruto's was completely metal, with the exception of the eyes, which were glass. They eyes stood out as being blue in color but the rest of the face was covered bya metal plate. This plate covered his entire lower face and looked like two plates started at the ears and met together in front of the nose. It had three horizontal slashes on the part in front of his nose to breath with and Naruto was absurdly reminded of a boxy, metal surgery mask.

Temari's mask was similar in construction in all aspects but the eyes were one long strip instead of two individual eyes. Naruto was beaming under his mask, he looked like some sort of ANBU. Rikku then led them out to the courtyard and then out of the fort. Rikku had a cart and horse all hitched up, which was stacked high with hay. She motioned towards it and Naruto and Temari leaped into it. Once Rikku was sure they were adequately hidden she disguised herself with a subtle jutsu and started to drive the cart. Rikku drove the cart for the duration of the day. Eventually they ended up at a walled town, and Rikku stopped the cart and whispered near the hay, "Alright guys, we are here, I am going to go check for some missions, we can at most take one, I want you two to stick together. Your group's codename is of right now Ronin Squad: Tailed beasts. Stay hidden and don't cause any trouble..."

Rikku walked into the town to find it in an uproar. The nearby town called Axalon had been taken over by the nearby country of the Drakkari. It seemed that a band of crazy shamans that called themselves the Amani had raided the Drakkari's great cities and come out victorious. In response, the Animal Spirits that the Drakkari had held so sacred to their hearts were killed and their blood consumed to push off the Amani, and it had somewhat worked, but many of them had still fled their leaders in fear of their new power. Now the Drakkari who stayed in their lands were consumed by a lust for more power and had begun to kill more of the spirits than they had originally planned, they were killing their sacred guardians one by one.

Rikku had heard of these animal spirits, they were somehow related to the Tailed Beasts, which meant that they might know how to train Temari's abilities and help Naruto control his own beast. She left for her cart and found Naruto and Temari just sitting there waiting for her. She shouted at them, "What are you two doing sitting there like that? I have a mission, but we have to hurry, we may already be too late. Ditch the cart! We have to go NOW!"

They climbed out and followed after Rikku. She had them running fast and hard to the west. Eventually they came upon a steep plateau and a gigantic stone stair case with many people running, screaming and generally panicking to get away from what was happening up top. "Stop for a second," Rikku commanded, "We are about to enter a real war zone, but we have a mission, do not stop for anything other than each other or me, do not try to aid either side in the war and if at all possible, be stealthy, I am talking to you, Naruto."

Naruto nodded impatiently, he was itching for some real action, it would be his first in two months. They ran up the sides of the stairs and flipped onto the plateau. When Rikku had said warzone, even she had had no clue as to quite how bad it was. There were literally siege engines all around them firing balls of flaming stone. They quickly and covertly avoided the heavy battle areas and figured that the regular way up to the next level was by using another great staircase, which they didn't have time for, so they looked around a little bit and found a broken aqueduct a little to the south and used it as a ramp up to the second level of what Rikku called, "The Ancient City of Gun'drak." Rikku quickly guided them to the next set of stairs which was heavily guarded and thus undesirable, so they headed a bit north to an amphitheater which was in ruins and abandoned, but lead all the way up to the next and final level. They threw themselves up to the final level and landed in two feet of snow.

Naruto absently picked up some snow in his hands as he looked up at the quite suddenly stormy sky. Rikku didn't give him or Temari much time and lead them to the only spirit she had ever actually met. "Wait, how many of these things do you know?" Temari asked on the way there.

"Well, a long time ago my Ronin group was hired by some of the Drakkari prophets and I got the opportunity to meet the tiger spirit Tigra. She was the size of a two story house, but seemed to exude this feeling of calmness. It was quite the experience. That is where we are going."

"What if they have already killed her?"

"Then I know where the closest one to her is. We'll go until we can meet one or we find out that they are already all dead."

Naruto nodded in agreement, what was going on here didn't feel right. Eventually they came upon Tigra's temple complex. It was being patrolled by a ton of men who had somehow turned their skin blue and they had almost no armor or clothes on, and nearly all of them had wickedly sharp spears. Rikku started to draw up a plan in her head but Naruto acted. He formed eighty shadow clones, drew his twin blades and charged in headfirst. Temari cursed but used the confusion he was creating to slip quietly up to the main altar's doorways and silently kill the guards with her scythe end of her Kusarigama. Once Naruto was done with the main body of the troops, he caught up with Temari, only four shadow clones left, all of them were unscratched. He gave her a thumbs up and she rolled her eyes. He quickly surveyed the inside, Tigra was obviously the gigantic tiger that was kept down by glowing chains, four shamans sat around her chanting and one guy who must have been the prophet was gloating in the face of the jungle cat. Naruto used a trick that Rikku had taught him to replace himself with dirt underground to get the drop on enemies and his clones climbed to the top of the walls around the great altar and took position by each of the four shamans, which meant that Naruto was under the prophet. Each clone hopped down quietly behind the shaman, drew Naruto's long knife (dirk), covered the man's mouth with his left hand and stabbed with his right. They died silently and the chains ceased glowing.

The prophet freaked out and Naruto jumped out of the ground and delivered an uppercut directly to the man's jaw. Temari went to work on the chains. Tigra slowly but surely stood up and then moaned in pain. "What can we do for you?" Naruto asked.

"There is nothing to do now, it is too late, I am the last of the spirits of this place."

"Um.." Rikku started, "look, at least you are free now. Is there anything we can do for you to heal faster?"

"Why are you humans here?"

"Well, we had hoped to stop the bloodshed before it got out of control..." Temari said.

Tigra growled and said, "Something about one of you smells familiar....it smells like fox...can it be?" she turned to Naruto, "What do you want, Nine-tailed fox?"

"I am not the Fox," Naruto whispered, for he was in awe, "that stupid beast is sealed inside of me."

"You came here to learn to control him didn't you?"

"not really, I came here because I needed to test my skills and something in my gut twisted when I heard about what was happening here."

"You are in tune with nature, interesting... What is your name child?"

"Naruto Uzumaki."

"I thought the Uzumaki had been wiped out. How many of them are you in The Elemental Nations?"

"one."

"hm... I like you... I have to thank you some how, and I think I know just the way. There is a building right behind me, go in there, and open the door to the main chamber and stand back."

Naruto did as instructed and opened the door and quickly jumped out of the way. It was good that he did, because then two tigers the size of horses dashed out and over to Tigra. Behind them followed several other tigers in various stages of development. One particularly small one plodded behind the rest. Naruto hopped, skipped and jumped back to in front of Tigra. She prodded the smallest of her litter to him with her nose and said, "this one will be one of my biggest cubs ever, he will grow strong and large fast, he will be your guardian, so that I may pay you back for your valiant efforts."

Naruto picked up the cub, which was at this moment the size of a tabby-cat with bigger paws and held him up to eye level. They both tilted their heads at the same time, to the same degree and to the same side. Naruto blinked and said, "hm... He's a cute little guy, It is hard to think of him being bigger than this, so I think I will call you... Peanut."

Rikku sweat-dropped and Temari sighed and shrugged, she was almost becoming immune to his... stupidity wasn't the right word, more like... tactlessness. Tigra then turned to Temari and said, "You, I can feel that you have a special gift, we used to call it the gift of the prophet. I can teach you how to use it. I think that that will be sufficient pay to my rescue. But for now, let us escape from this bleak land."

Tigra and her various children bore Rikku, Temari and Naruto all the way back to the fort at speeds so fast that many did not even notice their as people and jungle cats, but a mere passing of the wind. Rikku decided that that was enough fun for at least a month and so she put them back to hard-core training. Tigra found a cave near the fort to establish her new residence and so Temari would venture up and over the nearby hill for lessons on using her gift of control over the Tailed Beasts.

Peanut grew with astounding speed, in the course of a month he had outgrown all of his brothers and sisters, becoming the size of a large Clydesdale. One day Temari had accidentally bumped into Peanut and become so startled by the fur wall that she had accidentally let out a very loud squeak. Naruto giggled in amusement and Peanut made the low friendly mrowl of surprise at the noise. "hey, hey there Peanut, make sure not to hurt Temari okay?" Naruto asked.

Peanut harrumphed and then purred when Naruto began to scratch him behind the ears. "Why would you name him Peanut?" Temari asked.

"Cause he is such a cute little kitty, yes he IS!" Naruto began to scratch both behind his pet's ears and under his chin, resulting in a deep and for Temari, slightly unsettling purring noise. Temari couldn't help but to think, _this just keeps on getting weirder and weirder..._

AUTHOR'S NOTES

yeaha, I like this version much better, this is more of what I had in mind, there is more to come, and believe me I got some plot twists in mind and yes, even more Warcraft references if I feel up to it...hahaha


	5. Chapter 5

DUAL FLAMES CHAPTER 5

Naruto was in his full apprentice ronin gear, squatting in such a way that he could stay balanced on a pole. This was because he was on a mission, his second mission in the West. A corrupt public official of the town known as Ance was throwing a big party and Naruto had been paid to kill him in a rather public fashion. Naruto reached into the kunai pouch that hung from his belt and wiped it carefully in some salve which had intoxicating effects. There were five guards who needed to be delt with. Each of them were patrolling the surrounding walls, bows in hand, looking for anybody that was, well, like Naruto. A simple cut would be all it would take, they would begin to hallucinate and then they would black out. Naruto leapt down from his pole and focused his chakra to his feet. He walked on the outside perimeter of the walls and kept a good idea of where each of the guards were.

The first one was within reach so Naruto waited for him to turn to look back at the party and he scratched the guard. He then quickly and quietly went back onto the outside wall and focused chakra into his hands to hold him up against the wall, facing outwards. Naruto heard the guard's bow clatter to the ground and then looked up just in time to see a mace flung wildly at some hallucination and then Naruto heard the sound of mail on stone, signaling that the guard was down and out. He jumped up and took a bottle that wine could have been in and placed it in the hands of the guard. Naruto took care of the other guards in the exact same fashion.

Naruto looked in on the party, it was looking like quite the event. A table full of food everybody was in elaborate and bright clothes and nobody had even noticed that the guards had disappeared. As Naruto studied the party-goers more, he realized it was in fact, a costume ball. Everybody was wearing some sort of elaborate mask, and that was when Naruto realized he could use this to his advantage. He was wearing a mask, you see. His target was described as fat, usually wore red, and was supposed to be decked out in a medieval times like costume. He was too easy to find, right smack dab in the middle. One section of the garden area was deserted, so Naruto dropped down there and hid his knife in his sleeve, his hand on the handle.

The dancefloor was crowded with couples all dancing their own dance, no pattern whatsoever, perfect for an assassination. Or so Rikku had told Naruto, he wasn't too sure this would be easy to get out of. Once he got the actual floor, people looked over at him, alarmed by something, he quickly realized it was the two katanas protruding from over his right shoulder. He did his best Kakashi eye-smile and said, "Just props, nothing to worry about here."

That put their minds to rest, Naruto could tell because they seemed to collectively sigh and then continue. Word must have spread ahead of him, because nobody else questioned him. The fat man was twirling around and around with some very pretty woman and then was soon spinning by himself. Glorifying in his own wealth, no doubt. Naruto timed it so that as he turned around he wasn't there, but when he faced the same way, he was facing Naruto. The kunai made a sharp but decisive cut right through the man's throat and blood sprayed everywhere. The music stopped, people stared and Naruto was already climbing back onto the walls.

People were pointing at him and shouting, then guards spilled onto the floor and out of guard towers. Oops. Naruto had been instructed to throw a sharpened stick with the coat of arms of the family who had requested this onto the corpse, so he pulled it out and threw it down, right into the fat man's chest. With a chakra-induced burst of speed, Naruto went flying across the walls. As he did so, he whistled loud and clear and a haystack outside of the walls spewed out a gigantic tiger. Peanut caught up with Naruto almost effortlessly and Naruto jumped sideways onto his loyal guardian and they sped off into the distance, totally unscathed.

Peanut, the gigantic tiger, was Naruto's guardian, given to him by Tigra, the great animal spirit-goddess. He was big enough for Naruto and maybe one more to ride at a time, and was easily bigger than a Clydesdale. This ride was not Naruto's first, nor would it be his last, but Peanut was straight up faster than he was, and eager to show it off, any chance he got, so Naruto took the ride. A slight glow appeared on the horizon, this signaled that the run was almost over, Cannon town was close by. Rikku waited for Naruto at the gate to the village. She nodded to him and said, "Good job, all the conditions of the mission were met, you get half the gold, and I keep the rest as your teacher and manager, got it? Go and talk to the village chief, he wanted to have a word, I will wait for Temari."

Naruto dismounted and Peanut trotted off to get a drink. The village chief nearly ran over to meet him, avoiding Peanut with care on the way. He reached out to give Naruto a handshake and said, "Well, well, well. The rise of a star, tonight, eh? The boss is really pleased, so pleased that he may call on you guys again. He also wanted to know your name, what is it?"

Naruto thought carefully, Rikku had told him to give them an alias, so he said, "Call me Fox."

"What kind of a name is that?"

"The fake kind."

"To each his own, so I guess I will contact Rikku if I need to have you do anything else for me, but I have to say kid, I wasn't there, but plenty of my boss's people were and from what they said, watching you was like what their parents say was like watching an Uzumaki, know that?"

"How did you guys find out so fast, I traveled nearly ten kilometers to get here."

"Carrier pigeons. They are stupid as dung but bloody useful."

Naruto heard soft steps along the roof of the building to his left so he said, "You can't sneak up on me."

Temari jumped down and said, "I have been up there for nearly a minute, so should say that I can sneak up on you. I wanted to know what your alias was going to be, and since you're Fox, then I have to be Prophet, huh?"

As she said that, Naruto saw her both of her eyes turn entirely blue-green, whites included, and then go back to normal. Rikku laughed and said, "Well then, we'll be off, you know how to get a hold of me, and tell your friends!"

The fort remained unchanged, the single tower visible from miles away. Peanut plodded to his section of the fort, a gigantic stack of hay with a ludicrous water tray nearby and settled down for the night. Naruto undid his armor, put it up on the armor manikin and collapsed onto his bed. He slept dreamlessly and woke up cold and stiff. Training started right off the bat just like always, then breakfast, followed by ronin theory which was practiced later. As Naruto and Temari had grown, their day changed so that they trained a little less and learned a bit more about the West. Naruto felt like he was in the academy all over again. They did all their training until the event of a mission, then they would drop everything and go make some money and then come back and relax for the duration of the day. Business had been good since Naruto's assassination show, and when business was good, it seemed to almost rain gold. Naruto had a little treasure chest in his room now.

As lunch rolled around Rikku sat down next to Naruto and asked, "So, with Peanut, have you two fought with each other at all yet?"

"Why would I fight with a tiger? I'm not that stupid."

"No, you dolt, I mean fought on the same team yet?"

"No…"

"I think it might be a good idea, but you should work on it before you try it, today, I want you to go up to Tigra's cave and ask her to help you learn to fight as one, got it?"

"What will you and Temari do while I'm gone?"

"We'll figure out how to get along without you," Temari chimed in.

Naruto sighed, continued to eat and then when he was done, cleaned off his plate and picked up his stuff. Peanut was in the quad, casually munching on a deer he had hunted down. Naruto sat down nearby but didn't get too close, he knew better than to interrupt Peanut while he was eating. It was hard to watch and or hear sometimes, but Peanut was known to react…violently, to interruptions. The Tiger eventually finished gnawing on the bones and looked up to see Naruto. He twitched his tail in acknowledgement and went back to his treat. Naruto stood up and said, "Yo, you done? We are gonna visit your mom, can we get a move-on?"

Peanut's head jolted upright at the mention of his mother. The cat stood up and stretched out. When he was ready to go, Naruto jumped over the walls and set off onto the winding mountain path up to Tigra's new cave. Tigra's den was patrolled by her children, many of whom were older than Peanut, but smaller, while she laid inside. Naruto and Peanut walked in unopposed and saw that Tigra was curled up and apparently asleep. As Naruto took his first step into the cave, Tigra's eye that was facing him opened and moved to look at him very suddenly. It was all that Naruto had to not jump, because if Peanut was as big as a Clydesdale, Tigra was as big as a Woolly Mammoth. I was wondering when you would come to learn how to fight beside my child. It is good to see you, Uzumaki Naruto.

Naruto shivered, to have somebody speak in your mind was creepier than you would think. Ha ha ha, calm yourself, I will not hurt you, I find you amusing, as does my child, whom enjoys the look of incredulity that he receives for his name. It is a very unusual one.

Naruto bowed deeply. Look deeply into my eye, I will show you the way that Peanut will be inclined to attack his foes…

Naruto locked eyes with the goddess and felt knowledge rush into his mind. Because of Peanut's heratige, he could use his own chakras to make himself invisible, he could jump far and long, run at speeds up to 120 kmph, he was prone to smashing his prey with his claws and leaving deep cuts in their wake, but also liked to bite and with a little bit more exposure to Naruto's fire ninjutsu, he could probably even learn to copy it. As far as cavalry went, Naruto could probably use his swords separately, one in each hand and guide Peanut with his knees, but to put the hilts together would mean that many of his moves would put Peanut in jeopardy. Naruto opened his eyes and realized he was leaning against Peanut. Tigra projected, You are an interesting guy, as you looked into me, I looked into you…Do you realize that when one of your shadow clones dissipates you gain that shadow clone's experience? That could help your training a lot, don't you think?

Naruto nodded. In fact, why don't you make shadow clones to practice with my child now, but not here, go back to your fort, I am still tired from everything that has happened, Breathe Deep, Seek Peace, Uzumaki.

"Uh, you too, my lady."

Tigra seemed to growl funny, but then it occurred to Naruto that she was chuckling. Very odd. Scary even. Naruto hopped on Peanut and they headed out. They made their way down the path and into the fort, Temari and Rikku were gone, so Naruto assumed they had a mission they didn't need him for. He hopped off Peanut and made nine shadow clones. Peanut sniffed one of the clones and then stepped back and roared. Nine poofs appeared by Peanut and then there were nine more Peanuts. Four pairs went off to practice ninjutsu and the others went to go practice cavalry formations and fighting. The trick to cavalry was to not attack in front of you, but to your sides and the ninjutsu would just take time.

After about two hours of fighting, Peanut and Naruto decided to sit in the shade and take a break. After no more than thirty seconds, a pigeon flew down and stuck its leg out to Naruto. When Naruto didn't do anything, it began to peck him. As Naruto studied the crazy bird he realized that it had something tied to its leg. It must be a messanger pigeon. He grabbed it and untied the note. It read:

Hey Naruto,

Something went wrong with the mission, nothing big, but I think people may be onto the return of our clan to the West. Stay inside the fort, Temari is okay, be there soon, and don't go outside for anything.

Rikku

Naruto shook his head, he hadn't even been here for six months and stuff was already going to hell. Naruto breathed deep through his nose, he had to calm down. That was when he smelt it. Ash was in the air. Lots of it. He ran around the fort, he hadn't accidentally lit anything on fire, he hadn't. Peanut roared for Naruto's attention. Naruto dashed over to his pet and looked where he was looking. The town to the south, Axalon, was aflame. It was the only source of food for miles around, it had to be saved. Naruto checked all his equipment and jumped onto Peanut. Most of the town was already aflame, and as Naruto arrived he realized that he couldn't do anything about the fire, so he ran up to one of the guards and asked, "What is going on here?"

"wha? Who're you? Shit, it doesn't matter, some madman magician is attacking the city. We're trying to stop him… wait, are those swords on your back, are you a Ronin?"

Naruto nodded and said, "Call me Fox, where is this guy?"

"Center of town, City hall."

Naruto had seen the building on his last trip there a couple weeks ago to restock. He ran and Peanut followed. He burst in the front door. The mainly stone building was in bad shape the roof was looking like it was going to collapse. "Get as many people as you can out, Peanut!"

The tiger bounded in to find any survivors. Naruto burst into the main room. It was large and circular. A man was standing there, holding a staff with floating red crystals and chanting. Naruto made a shadow clone and then a Rasengan and charged the man. He flew forward and landed badly. But then he got up and waved his staff above his head. Three more of him appeared. Naruto drew his blades and made three shadow clones. Naruto charged him. The fight was long and grueling, to use more fire would make the problem worse so Naruto could only use his swords and his opponents were skilled with their staffs. One by one each of Naruto and his opponent's clones went down until it was just the two of them again. The man was wearing an all read cloak and robe, and it hid all his features.

Naruto pushed himself off his opponent and they glared at each other. Then the roof above them gave a sickening creak. They both looked up just in time to see the roof collapse. Crushing weight bore down on Naruto, but he didn't want to give up, he channeled his chakra into his swords and tried to send fire from them to blow the rubble off him. Naruto felt like he was suddenly engulfed in the hottest flame possible and then, it went away, just as fast as it came. Naruto opened his eyes, he was standing on top of all the rubble, in the metal plate armor that the Dual Flames had come with.

In every set of armor Naruto had seen before it, he had seen spots where flesh or cloth was visible. Yet, this armor completely encased him. It looked sort of like the ancient samurai armor he had seen in history books, but it also looked rather like the armor of western knights he had seen in Rikku's books. It had an obvious Samurai pattern in the helmet, spaulders, gauntlets, cuirass, and greaves, but everything else looked like a solid sheet of metal that covered the body entirely, but Naruto found bent quite easily. Naruto took a knife out from his belt and ran it along the odd material, and found that it did not scratch, nor when he applied more force, was it even felt at all. The Spaulders were of samurai design as well as the helmet and the four plates that cover the front, sides and back of the upper legs. The gauntlets were of western make, while completely armored, they were made to have each joint of the fingers and hand have a piece of armor for it, they all fit together usually with one fitting slightly under the other so as to maintain the full range of motion. The fingers were pointed and appeared to be sharpened to aid in grabbing. The cuirass was made to cover the front, back and sides of the torso while also holding the spaulders, belt and swords together.

Naruto wanted to take off the helmet to get a better look at it and suddenly the facemask split in two down the middle and retracted into the helmet. He took it off and looked at it. It was definitely of Samurai make, it looked like so many of the other ones he had seen had except for one thing, one thing that was sitting on the tip of his tongue… it was….

…smoother. The entire armor seemed to be made of a single piece of metal, he knew it wasn't , but it appeared that way, and that clicked the final realization, it was shaped like a Samurai armor, but made like Western armor, so it all fit together piece by piece, it wasn't riveted together. As Naruto considered his next course of action something pricked the back of his neck. He reached back to see what it was. It was a tranquilizer. He thudded forward, dropping the helmet.

**Elsewhere…**

Temari was nervous what had happened on the mission had been bad. People knew about them being students of the Uzumaki fighting style and they knew where the fort was, she was hoping against hope that Naruto wasn't under attack even now. Soon the city of Axalon should come into view, but only flames lit the horizon, not the proud towers of the only civilization for miles around. "Oh my god," she said, "I think that was a diversion…they sacked Axalon."

"What makes you think they are even connected?" Rikku asked.

"Because if I know Naruto, if he saw where we get our supplies getting burned to the ground he would worry about securing it from whoever did it and save as many people as possible, the perfect trap."

Rikku looked horror stricken, she knew Temari was right, and that meant that Naruto was in deep shit. She put on another burst of speed. Temari whipped out her fan and used it to keep up. When they came upon the town, the fire was still burning, but under control and swiftly being put out. Temari looked from above for any signs of the number one knucklehead ninja.

A mace on a chain suddenly ripped through the fabric of Temari's fan. Temari ditched the fan and tried to identify the enemy. No luck, so she brought out her Kusarigama and tried to use her own mace to sort of swing her out of harms way by using a nearby building. Instead she flung herself right into said building. She felt her left arm break. She landed and looked up. There was a man standing there, he had red everything on and was carrying an unconscious man in full-plate gear. A man with blonde hair and whisker birth marks. Temari put two and two together and realized it was Naruto. Peanut came roaring out of nowhere and attacked the man, but was repelled effortlessly, and then shot by about what looked like three tranquilizer darts. Peanut fell hard, and was then levitated behind the man. Temari was terrified, terrified beyond belief. Then she calmed herself, fear was a weapon, a weapon for her to use for herself and on others, fear was her weapon, all she needed was a plan.

This guy was obviously good with fire and good at setting up traps, but he had somehow taken Naruto… that meant that she would have to be sneaky, sneaky with a broken arm. Perfect. How could she fight well with a two handed weapon with only one hand. Naruto would know, he always could pull something out of his ass… maybe that was all she could do, charge in and do what she needed to do. She owed it to Naruto. The Red Man was suddenly constricted by heavy chains. Temari felt something deep inside her swell up with power, so she grabbed onto it. Her left arm healed. She felt herself lose her leather armor and gain full-plate armor. The armor she now wore looked just like Naruto's did except for the crest on her helmet, where Naruto's was two matching curved horns coming out from a circle on the forehead of the helmet, she had a crest that went from the back of her head to just above her forehead, about an inch wide and starting close to the back of the helmet and progressively growing taller to the front where it had two silver horns that started out going directly perpendicular to the crest and then rapidly turning around forming a sort of forty-five degree arc with the tips.

The man in red said, "two? Oh it is my lucky day, isn't it?"

He reached out to her and blackness swallowed her.

A bit later, Naruto would be the first to wake up. He was in a prison cell, his weapons and armor gone. He tried ot bring his hands together to perform some ninjutsu, but he was chained to the wall with enough room so that his hands could touch the floor upon which he sat, but not enough to bring his hands together to form hand-signs. He looked down, he was in his black undershirt and compression shorts. Peanut was curled up in a ball, breathing lightly, he was alive and probably sleeping. There were two more people in the dungeon, one was Temari, also stripped of her armor and weapons and another familiar face. "Dresdin?" Naruto called out.

Dresdin looked up and then identified Naruto. "So, you're the one he wanted, eh?"

"Wanted for what? Is he a member of the Akatsuki?"

Dresdin shook his head and said, "I don't think so, I have never heard of it, but then again, my master has been revealing a lot of new things lately."

"What does he want me for then? The fox? Is that why?"

"Look, do you understand the difference between mana and chakra?"

"uh, no."

"When a person is born, they are born with a finite amount of mana they can use and regenerate, conversely, your chakra can be regenerated and can grow through training, he wants to study your chakra to try and make his amount of mana behave similar to it, he wants to increase it."

"I don't get it."

"I think I get the basic idea," Temari said. Naruto looked over, she was awake, but she looked sick, or just plain tired.

As Temari sat there, Naruto noticed once again how very nice that tight shirt and compression shorts went for her. Every time she breathed a bit of her midriff was exposed and when she tried to sit more comfortably… Naruto nearly slapped himself, this was not the time for those kind of perverted thoughts. He looked away from her and tried his best not to blush. He wasn't sure how that was working, so he tried not to look at her until the heat left his face. "Glad to see that everybody is getting along," the man in red had come to the front of the cell, "I am finished with Bob, you can have him back now Ezio."

Dresdin struggled against the chains and said, "When I get out of here, I am going to kill you Jack, you hear me? What did you do to Bob?"

Jack tossed a plastic skull through the bars and it rolled over to Dresdin's lap. The sockets of the skull suddenly blazed orange and the toy opened its mouth and said, "Well, this sucks."

"Oh my god, Bob?" Naruto shouted, "What did he do to you?"

"He sucked out all my mana, destroyed my body and then stuck my soul inside a toy skull so that I can live forever in theory but with no physical body to enjoy immortality."

"You monster!" Temari shouted.

"Well, back to the light and that lively already, you must be quite the gifted ninja… but business first, Naruto, I am going to perform a few experiments on you, so now, come with me," Jack ordered.

Jack motioned for Naruto to come, and Naruto was suddenly released from his chains, but then restrained by three large rings of black lighting. Naruto struggled, but to no avail. He floated ominously out of the cell and out into the area just outside the cell. Lights came on. A large ritual table covered in candle wax was there. Naruto was inserted into the restraints. "First things first, we need to figure out just how much chakra you have… we will begin immediately."

Naruto went stiff, and stopped struggling. Jack continued, "I never thought I would ever see and Uzumaki again, such great technique your clan had. Combining mana and chakra, genius. Now, I am going to solve all the mysteries of the Uzumaki."

Naruto's chakra began to bleed out of his open mouth and his eyes, a light blue and it drained into a large crystal which began clear but began to take on a blue-ish hue. "You know, some of my associates saved some Uzumakis after the order to destroy them, put them into a stasis of sorts. They would not lend me one of them, wanted to wait until the Uzumakis were completely forgotten, but I know that if they are forgotten their value will decline, so when I heard about you from Ezio, well, I just had to try and get you, Naruto."

"YOU MONSTER!" Dresdin shouted.

Temari was thinking at light speed, how could she help, Naruto was already pretty drained, and once this guy got a hold of all of Naruto's chakras then Naruto would go into chakra exhaustion, which was deadly. Then it hit her, or, once Naruto ran out of chakra, the red chakra would emerge and who knew how that would go.

Then the blue chakra faded and red began to leak out of Naruto. "Hm, what's this?" Jack mused.

"You're worst nightmare," Temari said, "because if that means what I think that means, Naruto is about to wake up a bit cranky."

The fox cloak formed around Naruto, and he shook himself, the draining stopped. The crystal shattered and the chakra in it floated in the air for a second and then it flew over to the body closest to it, Dresdin. Dresdin screamed in pain and then passed out as Naruto's chakra inserted it into the poor guy's system. Naruto broke the restraints and stood up. He charged a Rasengan and dashed at Jack. Jack took the hit and flew through the stone wall behind him and into another room. Temari realized that Bob the skull was whistling. Then Temari saw Peanut. "Hey, Peanut, wake up!" she shouted, "Naruto needs you furball. WAKE UP!"

Bob the skull laughed and said, "want me to wake up the kitty?"

"You can't even move."

"I could, but I have to attach myself to some sort of physical object, so I could attach myself to the Tiger and wake him up and then fly back to my skull."

"Do it."

The fire that lit up Bob's eye sockets flew towards Peanut and hit him. Peanut woke up, Flame licking around the corners of his eyes. Then Bob flew back to his skull. Peanut looked around, confused and startled. "Peanut!" Temari shouted, "I need you to get me out of here so that we can help Naruto!"

Peanut shook himself and dashed over. He gnawed on the chains for a minute and they gave. Temari then grabbed the keys to the shackles that were hanging outside the door and undid them. Peanut was looking from her to his back, very quickly. She jumped on and Peanut ran from the room and to where Naruto and Jack were fighting. They were outside now, in the middle of a busy town which had stopped moving entirely to watch the clash. Jack was standing at the top of a dilapidated tower hurling fireballs down to Naruto. Naruto jumped up and dodged one perfectly and then blurred behind Jack whom he kicked into the air. Naruto shouted, "**SEALED POWER: VERMILLION RASENGAN!**"

Naruto charged the Rasengan and jumped up and hit Jack right in the back. The Rasengan expanded and damaged Jack severely. Jack flew upwards a bit and then rapidly fell down to the earth. Naruto picked the man up by the collar and shouted, "Is what you said true? Are their other Uzumakis? Where are they?"

"You will never catch the Illuminati," Jack responded, "No chance, you have nothing to go on."

"I have you, that is all I need."

"Look I only know the identity of one of them for sure, why the hell should I tell you?"

"Because if you let me know now, I will kill you now instead of handing you over to my aunt, whom is very skilled in the arts of aggressive persuasion."

"And who is your aunt?"

"Rikku Uzumaki."

That seemed to have an effect on Jack, "That bitch is still alive?! I heard she died in the battle of the Rex River."

"She is the one who is training me, now tell me everything you know!"

"His name is Lord Gervais, he lives in Primus city. He was my only contact, I swear!"

"Thank you," Naruto said and he raised a newly clawed hand and swept down.

Temari jumped in front of the enraged boy. "Okay Naruto, we have some new info on your family, great, now cool it! We have things we need to do, like plan it out, rest and heal up! Turn off the Fox power, now!"

Naruto looked at her and growled. What she had said had not registered, Naruto had to see this Lord, and now and he would not stop at anything until he had. Temari turned on her gift and said, _"Naruto, turn off the fox power, now!"_

Naruto just growled louder, he was becoming annoyed. That won't do it, he has not other chakra right now, he cannot change that easily. Tigra's soothing voice filled Temari's head, you will need to lend him some of your own.

"How do I do that?" Temari asked aloud.

My kind call it 'The Kiss of the Prophet'

"Tell me that does not entail actually kissing him."

Oh it does. Turn on your eyes and give him a big smooch.

"Are you pulling my leg? This isn't funny!"

Do you want to stop him from going on the rampage? Do it now!

Naruto growled deeply and a second tail began to form so Temari grabbed his head and gave him a peck on the lips with her eyes going.

To move chakra is going to take more than a peck! It has to be a long, deep kiss if you wanna knock him out so he can heal and regain his chakras.

Temari groaned in exasperation. But Naruto looked quite baffled for a minute, then he got mad, what was Temari trying to pull, kissing him? But Temari did it, she grabbed him again and kissed him deeply and for what felt like a long time. Fireworks went off in her head, this felt nice, she like it, but she didn't like Naruto, did she? She felt the cloak recede and saw Naruto's eyelids droop and then he finally fell over, totally checked out. "Whoa," Temari said, "That was some fireworks display, does it do that every time?"

That had nothing to do with your ability, that was all you and him. I thought it was cute.

"Oh my god, do I _like_ Naruto?"

Peanut put his head under her hand and rubbed himself against her. It seems that my child approves…

Temari quickly commandeered a cart and hitched Peanut up. She piled Naruto in it, got the cart over to Jack's secret lab and freed Dresdin and Bob. Dresdin was still down and out, but Bob was positively bubbling with conversation. She threw them both in the back with Naruto. She went through the lab, took all the books she could find to add to Rikku's library, and found Naruto and her new armors strewn all over the floor of a room next to the prison cells. All of those items were also thrown into a second cart which she stole from a passerby. The second cart had a horse so she didn't have to worry about that. Bob led Temari into a room filled with all the different "wands" that Jack had used and Dresdin could use, so she grabbed them too. Eventually she set out of the town whose people were avoiding her like the plague. Once she was outside she sighed and said, "I have no way on knowing which way to go…"

Peanut mrowled and set off west. Eventually they came upon the forest that the fort was hidden in and they found themselves on the doorstep. Temari unhitched Peanut and asked, "Could you go get Rikku? She must be worried sick right about now, tell her we're okay, got it?"

Peanut roared and set off. Temari set up Naruto in his bed and prepared a bed for Dresdin and stuck Bob on Dresdin's nightstand. She set up the armors on their stands in the armory and then trudged to the courtyard to wait for Rikku, it was going to be a long wait.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Sorry it took so long guys, I have had loads of computer trouble but I promise I am still here and thinking about you guys. I am finally getting to where I want to be for this story and Chasing Naruto is currently getting beta'd. ANYBODY INTERESTED IN BETAING FOR THIS STORY PLEASE MESSAGE ME OR COMMENT, I WILL CHECK EVERY DAY FOR ANYBODY INTERESTED, thanks and I hope you have better computer luck than I do.


	6. Chapter 6

DUAL FLAMES chapter 6

Naruto was covered in bandages, propped up against several pillows, and he hurt. He looked around, there was gray stuff making up walls, but his vision and brain were very foggy. Where was he? a hole opened up in the grey matter and someone walked through. It looked like the love child of Rikku and an iguana. "Hey there Naruto, you feeling okay? Do you remember what happened?" it asked.

"Well, Oh reptilian one, I found out that the crazy guy had some Uzumaki bros and I got very mad and I don't remember much after that… who're you? Oh! What happened to my hands? They're all bandaged and bleeding, oh, that's gonna hurt in the morning, huh?"

"Oh that's all?!" the Lizard woman leaned in close and shouted, "There is a place you were mentioning when I was giving you treatment, can you remember it?"

"Now you look like Sakura," Naruto said, "and Sakura…you need a tic-tac."

Naruto collapsed back into a deep sleep. Temari walked in, she saw that Rikku was looking exasperatedly down at an asleep Naruto. "I told you shouting won't wake him up," she said, "I mean, come on, he has been all over the place lately, give him a break!"

"I am beginning to think that the healing salve that guy sold to me was a hallucinogen."

"Did Naruto wake up?"

"He basically told me that he did not remember much and that I needed a tic-tac."

"How is Ezio doing?"

"He told me his life story, poor kid, he has nowhere to go."

Just then the wizard code-named Dresdin, real name Ezio Lupo, walked in. He was holding a vial with an electric blue liquid in his hand. He opened Naruto's mouth and poured said Liquid down. Blue smoke shot out of Naruto's ears and mouth and then Naruto began to drool profusely. Ezio slapped him and shouted, "Dammit wake up! I have tried everything!"

Naruto blinked blearily and sat up and started to rub his eyes. "wassup guys?"

Rikku glared at her student, but Ezio started a victory lap and Temari started to breathe normally again. The road to recovery was short from there. A few days later, a fully recovered Naruto was sitting in his room, along with Temari, Ezio and Rikku, all staring at the armor that Naruto had accidentally called to him. Rikku sighed, "okay, there is something you guys have to know…"

She snapped her fingers and the armor disappeared, and she brought out a scroll. She unrolled it from one side of the wall to another. There were nine individual seals on it. She made the tiger sign and opened the seals. Nine armors appeared that were similar to Naruto's and Temari's. All of them were slightly different with different weapons and looks, but they were all silver. "Tens of thousands of years ago, a nameless, but powerful demon came to the West to begin the domination of this world. He used a magically enchanted armor and weapons to accomplish this goal, but The Uzumaki clan stood in his way, and they defeated him and stole his armor. They took this armor and split it into ten sets, five used a different nature of chakra respectively, four represented four aspects of ninjutsu respectively and one was the ultimate armor, which could use all five elements and could only be worn by a master of all four aspects of the ninja. That armor was lost centuries ago, sealed up because it, like the nameless demon was too powerful. These armors that sit before you are those nine armors, handed down from generation to generation by Uzumakis and protected by me during the final days of the Uzumaki until now. They are as follows, Wildfire, Torrent, Halo, Strata, Hardrock, Loyalty, Illusion, Venom and Darkness.

"Naruto, when you were trapped in that fire, trying to save those people, the armor of Wildfire came to you, and selected you as its next bearer. Temari, your fierce loyalty to Naruto cause the armor of Loyalty to come to you in your time of need." Rikku snapped again and a scroll of a picture of each armor fell in front of it, but each armor was colored, not silver, "As you can see here, the armors should be these colors, but they aren't, those two armors chose you, but you have to figure out how to use them, got it? That is what we will be training, calling and powering your armors, got it?"

Naruto nodded and jumped up, pumping his fists, but then he said, "Wait, but, how do I call it?"

Rikku tossed him a scroll with the symbol for Wildfire on it, and Naruto began to read. It was like a summoning jutsu. He just had to learn the signs for it. Monkey, Dragon, Bull, and Tiger. Naruto tried it and felt flames lick his body, and the first layer of armor appear on him. The flexible part under the main parts of the armor had appeared on him. Naruto pushed a bit of chakra into it, and then he pushed a lot in, and the silver turned to Red and White. Temari did the same and ended up with the flexible armor with at least three different shades of blue, from dark to medium and a ton of light blue.

The thing about fighting in those was movement was not really restricted, but it was slowed down. It took two weeks to really get the motions down. After one particularly rough day, Naruto shed the armor and collapsed. He propped himself up with his swords, and was assaulted by a vision. A man wore the Wildfire flexarmor. He was surrounded, so he stuck out one hand and shouted, "**ARMOR OF WILDFIRE: DAO JIN!**" The man was engulfed in flames and when they went away, he was in the full armor. The man stuck the hilts of his two swords together and jumped into the air and shouted, "FLARE UP….NOW!"

His double bladed sword was engulfed in a pillar of flame which he sent at his enemies, who were annihilated. Naruto opened his own eyes and looked down at his hand, it now had two swords tattooed there. He stood up and called forth the flex armor and then stuck out his right hand and shouted out, "**ARMOR OF WILDFIRE: DAO JIN!"**

Naruto looked around to see that he was in full armor, but he knew he was completely out of chakra. He let the armor dissipate and he fell sideways. Rikku called to Temari, but her eyes were glazed over, for she too was trapped in a vision. A man wore the same flex armor as she did, (obviously fit for a man) and he was traveling somewhere. He landed on the ground and stuck out his left hand and channeled his chakra into it, black lightning appeared and expanded from him. When it faded, the man was in full armor, and he ran and jumped out above nearby town which was heavily garrisoned. He brought out his own Kusarigama and shouted, "**QUAKE WITH FEAR!**"

The guy threw the mace end into the ground, and a thousand different maces on chains sprayed up from the ground and bound anybody in the town. The man smiled, it would be much easier to find the target now…

Temari jolted up and looked down at her hand. It had two swords there now too. She stood up and stuck out her left hand. She pushed some chakra into it and the Black lightning expanded and put her in full armor. She took the armor off quickly after that. Naruto was given food and was soon on the way to recovery. On the day after, Rikku went in to check on him. He was staring up at the ceiling, alone in his room. "Can I ask you something?" he asked.

"Shoot," Rikku responded.

"Can you tell me why the Uzumaki's were wiped out again?"

"I think you know why."

"It's cause of these armors, huh? People wanted them, but then, why didn't they just try to take them?"

"The people did it because they thought that each Uzumaki had an armor, and they would just extract it, and since nobody told them the secret, they just kept on taking them in and killing them through torture or gruesome experiments."

"That's disgusting."

"You have no idea. You didn't see any of it, or feel the kind of fear we had for everybody else around us, and when the other ninja clans betrayed us… it all went downhill…"

"What do you mean other ninja clans? I thought you said we were the only ones."

"The Uzumakis were more of a main branch of a ninja village. The other clans have scattered now, but they still remember the armors, and if they hear about us, they'll try to keep it a secret and build up power, so naturally everybody will find out and then we will become a resource in short supply. So can you spell screwed?"

"Lord Gervais in Primus city… who is he?"

"He is a top ranking official of a city that has control over one of the ninja clans, so we'll have to be flawless to pull this off."

"How do we do it?"

"I have been thinking about it, and I have come up with only one feasible course of action, but it is one that requires patience, and I know it's hard, for me too, but you'll have to promise to me that you'll do your part, got it?"

"I'll do whatever I need to in order to save whoever is left."

"That is the only answer I knew you could possibly stand to say, so here is the plan…"

**Two weeks later**

Simon Falcone was a single, and well-off knight in the service of Lord Gervais. He had just had an ugly break-up so the people who claimed to know him would expect him to be acting a bit funny, which was what made him the perfect target for Naruto to impersonate. Naruto tailed him for an entire day to get a feel for his routine and then ambushed him at his apartment. Naruto was now under a basic disguise jutsu and was going through the motions while trying to find an opportunity to "move up". The plan was to eventually take the place of one of Lord Gervais' personal friends of family members and then find out who the other members of the Illuminati were and free any Uzumakis he was holding prisoner.

Naruto walked up to Simon's locker and found an invitation to the feast that was being held in Lord Gervais' son's honor. The young man had graduated from the officer's academy in Rexus. This would be the perfect chance, because it was in the main citadel, and anybody who was somebody was allowed to come, which meant that as Simon, Naruto was somebody. Naruto found the man's best dress-clothes and hid a dozen kunai all in inconspicuous places. Simon looked splendid and Naruto had studied all his mannerisms, so he was ready. The main check point was easy to get through, the guards were friends of Simon's, so they didn't even stop him to ask for ID.

The ball was amazing, all the costumes and food looked and tasted amazing. I sat down to eat, and someone sat on the opposite side of the table, she was tall, with black hair and deep brown eyes. She pulled on her collar with her right hand, and I returned the gesture, and she smiled. Temari had found this person to impersonate. Once all the dancing and eating was done, Lord Gervais stood up at a podium to address the entire audience. "Well, my friends, my family, welcome, and while I intend to have my official speech later, I would like to request an audience with one Sir Simon Falcone, over the matter we discussed a week ago."

I stood up and I knew that Temari would politely excuse herself and then find a way to follow me and offer back up if I needed it. Lord Gervais met with me in a large but private chamber and he said, "So, I heard about Marion, she was a bitch anyway, just let it go…"

"Already over her, sir."

"Good to hear… good to hear… So, when will my next lesson be?"

"Um…" Naruto stuttered.

"Look, I know it is hard for you to teach me, but the more I know about ninjutsu, the more I will be able to recognize it! This is important."

I nodded and said, "How about next Monday, from sun up to sun down?"

"I have some meetings, but I will cancel them… and I got your report about our two subjects, the Uzumaki brats, it was interesting, and I think I agree with your theory about the armors… they must have been hidden by the Uzumakis, which means they are probably lost forever… but we still have our little lab rats…"

"You know what," Naruto responded coyly, "I just remembered something, I have to go and check up on something with them, could you direct me in their direction again?"

Lord Gervais jumped away from me and said, "Oh, shit, the operation has been compromised, only Simon Falcone and I knew where we hid them, we both chose the hiding spots! Who are you?"

Temari blurred behind the panicking lord and stuck a kunai near the front of his throat. He stopped moving and said, "okay, fine, I give, you win… You're from Pazzi, aren't you? I will not give him my test subjects, so he can forget it! Besides, I thought that Vox City had enough to keep him occupied with the Drakarri escapees."

Naruto released the disguise and walked up to the man and whispered, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, I am the last Uzumaki, you will give me back what is left of my clan, or I will make you beg for death, but keep you alive beyond ridiculousness."

"oh my god, I thought you were all dead… I am not going to give into you!"

Naruto sent his fire chakra through a kunai and lit the blade on fire, and he stuck the knife through the man's hand, the fire immediately cauterized the wound. That hand would never be the same, and he screamed. When he stopped screaming he just shook. Rikku jumped down next to us and said, "Well, be glad I put a sound proof jutsu on this place, or the entire citadel would know what was going on."

The man started to whimper and Naruto pulled out the kunai and asked, "Where are the Uzumakis? Tell me now, nobody can hear you scream!"

"T-t-tallest tower…. L-l-lowest dungeon."

Naruto knocked the man out and stuck out his right arm and shouted, "**ARMOR OF WILDFIRE: DAO JIN!**"

The fully colored and effective armor suddenly covered Naruto. Naruto activated the face mask and jumped out a nearby window to run up the sides of the towers. Rikku turned to see that Temari was also in full armor, but she was heading down to the lower levels, to the dungeons.

Heavy storm clouds filled the sky, and while it was not yet raining, it looked like it was only a matter of time. The tallest tower was at the dead center of the complex, and it was taller than everything else by leaps and bounds. Naruto ran like ninjas always do, leaning forward, body a straight line with their hands trailing behind him. He jumped and flipped over onto the roof of the tallest tower. Naruto pushed flames into his swords and carved a hole in the tiled roof. He dropped into the room to see that a person was floating in a green liquid, totally unconscious. He was about the same age as Naruto, with very straight dirty blonde hair. A flyer glued to the tube said his name was Uzumaki Ashai. There was a big red button that said eject, but Naruto decided to just shatter the tube.

The guy fell out and into Naruto's arms. Naruto grabbed a set of plain grey clothes and dressed him quickly and carelessly. Then Ashai woke up, and he woke up pissed. "What do you people think you are doing? I am an Uzumaki!"

He smacked Naruto away and shouted, "Where the hell am I and who the hell are…you… that's the armor of wildfire…"

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto responded, "and I am here to get you out of here!"

Naruto offered him his hand, and Ashai took it. Ashai tried to stand, but he couldn't, so Naruto pulled him up over one of his shoulders and they jumped out of the tower. "Hold on," Naruto whispered.

They descended down the tower and to one of the nearby walls. Peanut was waiting, so Naruto jumped onto the gigantic tiger's back and shouted back, "I need to get you home, then I will go back to try and help rescue the other one, okay?"

"Who's the other one?" Ashai asked.

"We were hoping that you would know."

"Last thing I remember was hearing that one of the nearby towns was no longer hiring Uzumakis, so I went to check it out, somebody drugged me."

"When was that?"

"September of the year 175."

"That was approximately ten years ago bro, a ton has changed since then." That was when the lightning struck.

Back in the dungeons of Primus City, Temari was slaying anyone who got in her way. Eventually she came upon the lowest point in the citadel, and Rikku found a secret door. A woman bounced asleep in green liquid in a gigantic glass tube. Temari opened the tube and found the Uzumaki some clothes. Her name was apparently Nefer. Nefer woke up, looked around, stared bluntly at Temari, and that was when the darkness fell.

Naruto was thrown bodily off of Peanut. Lights danced in front of his eyes. He could not see when they were open and it hurt, so he closed them. "Shit!" Ashai cursed, "There are like twenty of them!"

Naruto had just the other day been boasting that he could pull off Jiraiya's fire Rasengan combo with his eyes closed, so he flashed through the hand signs and shouted, "Fire Style: Dragon Flame Bombs!"

Naruto shot five fireballs into the air. He jumped up and charged a Rasengan and shoved his second jutsu into the first, causing a gigantic ball of fiery death to descend upon anybody he aimed at, or at least he hoped so. He landed and asked, "Did that get them?"

"Except for one!"

"Where is he?"

Naruto blinked his eyes and the world came blearily into focus. One person was standing opposite to Naruto and Ashai, she was chanting something, and then she pointed her staff into the sky, and the thunder clouds seemed to condense and then light flashed and Ashai pushed Naruto out of the way. Ashai stood tall, a new armor covering him, it was the armor of Halo, totally sliver, meaning that the armor had chosen him, but Ashai had not learned to use the armor. Naruto jumped into the air and connected his swords. He shouted, "FLARE UP…NOW!"

Fire covered both him and his swords, and Naruto swung them towards his last enemy, whom would be identified only by dental records. Ashai fell over to his side. Naruto leaned up against a nearby tree and noticed that Peanut was out of it and bleeding on his left forepaw. That meant that Naruto was out of chakra, Peanut was injured, and Ashai was out cold, perfect situation. Naruto pulled out a kunai and shoved what little chakra he had left in it and threw it high into the air, he could only hope that Rikku or Temari would see it.

Temari had other issues at that time, however. She was trapped in a pitch black room, with a nearly incapacitated prisoner. "Oh, crap! Which is the way out?!"

"You can't see it?" that must have been Nefer.

"It is blacker than the sky on a starless night!"

Temari felt a hand grab hers. Then another hand turned her head to see a light. Temari and Nefer picked their way through the rubbled to where the light was. "Oh no…" Nefer groaned.

"What is it?"

"The magicians of Lord Gervais. They have stolen the light."

"They can do that?!"

"We can get it back if we break that light crystal."

Temari aimed and threw a knife sharpened with wind chakra. It shattered the crystal, and light flickered back. Nefer looked around and said, "We must be in the dungeons of Primus city… but who are you, and how did you get that armor?"

"My name is Temari of the Desert, and this armor chose me."

"How many Uzumaki are left?'

"Including you, and one other hypothetical prisoner in this castle, three."

"Just you and I?"

"I am not an Uzumaki, my partner is."

"That armor should only go to an Uzumaki!"

"Yeah, well, it has come to me! We need to get out of here!"

"I never thought we would actually die out…"

"The Uzumaki are far from dead, you don't know Naruto."

Nefer looked up at me and asked, "My father always said the only way to make sure the mission has the best possible chance to succeed is if everyone involved understands that the leader is the ultimate rule… right now, that is you, so, what's the plan?"

As Temari began to speak, three light-sucking crystals dropped down to take all the light away. "Get those first," she commanded.

Nefer smashed two before Temari was two steps away from her first target, when the light returned, a man was staring at them in disbelief. He whispered something and his staff sucked in the light, so Temari tossed Nefer a combat knife and brought out her own Kusarigama. Something happened to Nefer, because she suddenly yelped in surprise and then the sound of metal on stone filled the already cramped chamber. The lights came back on, Nefer was laying on the ground in a silver warlord armor of Darkness. Temari jumped into the air and focused all her cruelty into her weapon and shouted, "**Quake with fear!**"

The mace end of her Kusarigama went into the stone and shot out, now with at least a hundred of them. The mage was bound. This was easy. Temari stabbed him with her combat knife, and picked up Nefer. She destroyed her way up and into the open. The entire citadel was in an uproar, and then Temari saw a flaming kunai get thrown into the air. Naruto was in trouble. She started to run towards her friend with a new ally draped over her shoulders.

She finally came upon the area that Naruto had sent the beacon up from, there were corpses everywhere. Naruto was barely hanging on to his own awareness, Peanut was bleeding and the armor of halo sat in the grass…. Wait, what?

Temari noticed that there was someone inside of it, so Naruto had found his own ally, and they had also gotten an armor to boot. Rikku burst onto the scene. "I had to clean up that horrible mess you guys made and you can't even handle a few mages?! What the hell have you been doing during your training?"

"Had to protect him…" Naruto gasped out.

"And I had to protect her…" Temari said.

Rikku identified what the two new armors meant and her eyes widened. "WHY THE FUCK DOES THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN TO ME?!" she shouted.

She weaved a couple hand signs and a blue dot swirled out of mid air, it expanded to reveal a picture of the fort. "Toss them through," Rikku said.

Temari sort of tried to guide Nefer through the light, but then Rikku grabbed her and threw her into the portal. "They're in full armor, just throw them!"

Naruto was next, followed by Ashai and then Peanut limped through on his own. Temari went through next and then was followed by Rikku. Temari took off her helmet and fell onto the grass behind her. She dissipated her armor and noted Naruto had done the same. Peanut was soaking his paw in the nearby water, and Naruto was floating there nearby. Temari dissipated her armor and fell into the cold water. Rikku took care of Ashai and Nefer and then came out to see us. "So," she said, "those two, I know them, sort of, they'll be glad to see me I hope. I'll teach them to fight using their armor and as soon as they are up to scratch and you're recovered, we'll go to the Pazzi in Vok city. We'll crush them."

Naruto nodded and got out of the water and curled up next to Peanut, to share warmth. Rikku kept her word, in no longer than a month, Ashai and Nefer were up to par with their armors. They could power them up and use their "sure-kills" as Rikku dubbed them. On one particular day, Naruto and Nefer were sparring against each other. Their sword play was equal, so Naruto decided to try something else. He disengaged, sheathed his swords and started to send out shuriken like an automated weapon. Nefer was able to deflect and dodge many of the pointies, but after about thirty seconds, she dropped her blade. She activated the claw weapon on one of her gauntlets and charged him. Thinking quickly, Naruto made a shadow clone and formed a Rasengan. He dashed at her, shoved her claw away and shoved his attack right into her stomach. She spiraled backwards and landed on her back, spread-eagled.

She jumped up, took of her helmet and shouted, "That is totally unfair, I don't know any jutsu to match your shuriken throwing, or that other move!"

"You can't use shuriken?" Naruto asked, incredulous.

"No, I was only taught sword play and wall walking before I was captured! The armor is teaching me how to use the sword, but I couldn't even begin to think of a way to block that stuff!"

"That is what I was afraid of," Rikku sighed, "Ashai, how much have you learned?"

"A bit, I mean, my father taught me everything I know, and he said that I could pass as a genin at least in the Elemental Nations…" he responded.

"I could teach Ashai, but I don't have time to bring Nefer up to scratch by myself and do everything else I have to do in only two years…"

"Talk to Pervy Sage," Naruto responded easily.

"He is gathering intelligence on the Akatsuki and that man… he doesn't have time for this."

"Then how about Granny Tsunade?"

"Fool," Rikku retorted, "I am not about to ask the leader of the hidden leaf to drop everything and come train two newbies the basic arts of ninjutsu."

Ashai and Nefer flinched, Temari was still trying to understand why Naruto called the Hokage 'Granny' and was thus distracted, but then Naruto said something intelligent, "No no, I mean, why don't you ask her to send someone to help you teach them? I know Iruka Umino is a good teacher."

Rikku's eyes flashed, and then she said, "But we can't afford to sail someone over here…"

"I once saw Pervy sage travel by frog… we could do something like that."

"They would have to have signed on with the frogs…"

"Wait, wait, wait," Temari interrupted, "I think he could be on to something, we could seal them on a scroll and then have the frog reverse summon them here to us, it would be like lightning."

Rikku nodded, but then said, "Fine. You win, but on one condition, the teachers they send over will not know about the armors, and Naruto, I know you will blab, and I have an idea about how to invade Vok, so you will begin the operation, with the aid of Temari while these two train. Naruto, summon a frog."

Naruto nodded, and made his armor go back to the armory. The others did the same. Then Naruto rushed through the hand signs and shouted, "Ninja Art: Summoning jutsu!"

Gamakichi appeared in a poof of smoke. He was as tall as Naruto's waistline now. "Naruto?!" he shouted, "Is that you?! Oh man, I missed you, is there a battle?"

"Not yet, I was wondering if you could deliver a message to Granny Tsunade extra fast for me. It's important."

"You understand that you will need to pay me, right?"

"Three bags of chips."

"Five."

"Four or nothing."

"Deal."

Rikku was furiously writing a letter to Tsunade on a scroll, which she finished, tied and handed to Gamakitchi. He grabbed it and poofed away. Naruto looked around and said, "Anybody got four bags of chips?"

_**In the Hidden Leaf Village**_

Sakura was studying how to repair some pretty basic mammal organs in Tsunade's study. Suddenly a toad poofed right in front of her. "What the heck?" she screeched, "Are you trying to screw with me?"

The toad offered her a scroll and said, "This is an urgent message to 'Granny Tsunade', its from Naruto."

Sakura was taken aback, "What is it about?"

"Dunno, he promised me some chips if I did it though, but I bet he doesn't really even have 'em. He never does."

Sakura snatched the scroll and ran to the tower to talk with her master. Gamakitchi was not far behind. She burst into the audience room. Iruka was there, as well as Shizune and Tsunade, they were giving a mission to Team Asuma. "My Lady," Sakura said, "I have an urgent message from Naruto. It's this scroll."

Tsunade grabbed it and began to read, Shizune and Iruka over her shoulder. Someone tapped Sakura's shoulder. It was Shikamaru, "How is Naruto doing? He isn't in trouble is he?" he asked.

"I don't know, I didn't get to read the scroll yet."

"It would be a hassle to track him down and save him."

"Oh my god," Tsunade said, "This could be either a tragedy or fantastic… surviving Uzumakis…"

"Naruto must be learning a ton over there, and this teacher of his doesn't seem half bad," Iruka said.

"Yes, well, it says they need a basic ninjutsu teacher and someone who can teach the lightning element… Iruka, I am going to loan you out for a bit… and I would like to send Kakashi, but he is one a mission, so, it'll have to be…"

At that moment, Kakashi hopped into the room from outside and said, "I just finished, so, what is the number one knucklehead ninja up to?"

"I will go prepare a scroll," Shizune said, and she scurried off.

"So, what's the deal?" Sakura asked. Tsunade handed the initial message over to Kakashi, who read it silently and with great speed.

"It turns out, Naruto doesn't just have an aunt, he has some cousins who are in a bit of trouble, he is going to help them out, but he needs to get the ones he has already saved up to scratch to aid his efforts."

"wow, where did he dig them up?" Ino asked.

"In the West."

"But Iruka, why would you be surprised at Master Jiraiya's skill at teaching?" Asuma asked.

"Well, you see," Tsunade said, "Jiraiya is looking around for some answers on that one organization, so he can't teach Naruto any more, his aunt is taking care of him now."

"Naruto doesn't have an aunt, he doesn't have any family," Sakura pointed out.

"Not any that you know about," Kakashi said mysteriously.

Shizune ran in with a gigantic scroll. She unfurled it a bit and Kakashi and Iruka stepped on it, and were sealed inside it. Shizune rolled it up and gave it to Gamakitchi. Gamakitchi winked and then poofed away.

_**In the Fort**_

Gamakitchi poofed into the courtyard to find four bags of chips awaiting him, He tossed the scroll to Naruto, who had the wind knocked out of him as a result. While Naruto regained his breath, Rikku undid the scroll and released the seals. Iruka and Kakashi stood on the scroll and looked around. "Hey, so where's Naruto?" Iruka asked.

Kakashi pointed at the orange lump on the ground and sighed. He was still so clumsy. "So, anyway, my name is Hatake Kakashi, and I am here to teach lightning style ninjutsu."

Ashai raised his hand and said, "I believe I will be your student."

Kakashi eye smiled and steered Ashai to the nearest training ground. Iruka looked around, tilted his head at the sight of Temari and asked, "May I ask what the sand is doing here?"

She is playing babysitter for the boy, Iruka paniced at the sight of the gigantic Tiger, My name is Tigra, I smelled something new while visiting my kitten, and decided to see Naruto.

Naruto was standing up at this point, and bowed deeply to her. The tiger made an appreciative purr, licked him and bounded off out of the fortress. "You keep strange company these days, Naruto."

Then Peanut walked up, but to Iruka's credit, he did not so much as flinch that time. Rikku ushered Nefer up to Iruka and said, "here is the one you will be teaching, have fun, I have a mission to send these guys on, so we will take our leave to the tower. You should find us on the roof."

Rikku guided them up to the top and said, "So, I have a plan for Vok…"

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Hey guys, hope you love it, keep reviewing and please let me know if I go way too far with this idea, I want to picture Naruto with the armor while still keeping it ninja and not power rangers, please let me know if I even get close to power rangers, thank you

IPOD384


	7. Chapter 7

DUAL FLAMES CHAPTER SEVEN

"So, I think I have a plan for Vok city," Rikku said.

Naruto and Temari nodded, egging her on, so she said, "Okay, have you two ever done any sort of hard core infiltration missions before?"

Naruto raised his hand and said, "um, when we saved Nefer and Ashai…"

"No, no, no, I mean like infiltration for like at least a month."

Naruto and Temari shook their heads. So Rikku sighed and said, "Okay, here is the deal, you two are going to enter the service of the lord of Vok city, you will use your ninjutsu skills to rise to the cream of the crop. So you will do whatever duties you are assigned and the entire time, you will be poisoning food, causing dissention, and wreaking havoc on the morale of the city from the shadows. While you are doing this, you will do whatever you need to, to get promoted, and then, we will stage a battle to prove your loyalties lie with Vok and then, we will find any clues about the Illuminati or any Uzumakis, and then we will use their own system to destroy the city."

"That is rather ambitious, don't you think?" Temari asked.

"Nah, you two are ready for that kind of mission, trust me."

Temari sighed, "Naruto could easily blab everything though."

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed, "I'm right here!"

"True, but there will not be any sort of disguise or mannerisms needed to be learned, you will simply be peasants who lost their farm recently who need work, and are cheap to buy, trust me, you'll find what you need, and work your way up."

Naruto nodded and Rikku threw him some battered clothes. They would be all the disguise he would need. Naruto threw them on and hid some knives on himself. As soon as Temari had changed, they left. The walk would be a long one, and Naruto sort of felt the quiet slowly become awkward. "So…" he said, "Beautiful day, right?"

Temari nodded distractedly. "You okay, Temari?" Naruto asked.

"I guess, it's just that I guess I'm a bit homesick. I miss Gaara and Kankuro."

"You could send them a letter."

"I don't think that would be wise…" Temari said.

"Well, you'll always have me!" Naruto said, cheerfully.

A second later, "That sounded like I meant something which I don't," Naruto said, "and there were some implications that could have easily and understandably been made, but don't take it that way, okay?"

Temari laughed, he was too much some times. "What are you laughing at?"

"The number one knucklehead ninja."

Naruto sighed, "Am I ever going to outgrow that name?"

"Not with the way you behave."

"Is that really what you think about me, that all I am is knucklehead?"

"No, just a big part of you, it's what makes you, you Naruto. Don't sweat it. It's like how you narrow your eyes when you think, or blurt out what first comes to your mind, or how you are always charging forward full tilt."

Naruto was sort of touched, that was a very accurate description of him. How had she taken so much in? "So," Temari said, "Now that I have spilled the beans on you, you have to do me the same favor."

Temari was looking down and away from Naruto, fighting a blush hard, it was just barely visible, but she didn't want Naruto to mock her for her boldness. "Well, since those things all add up to make me Naruto, the Knucklehead, then I guess what makes you Temari is the power you seem to have, the brains that drive it. You know exactly what you can do and the best way to do it, and you always do it with this feminine poise and grace that can sort of make you intoxicating…"

Temari was full-on blushing now. "Oh god," Naruto gasped, "You know how everyone had inside words and outside words, well that time an inside word came out."

Temari sort of choked on a laugh, he was such a _dunce_. Would Naruto make a good boyfriend? A couple months ago, she would have been reviled by the very thought, but now, she had gotten to know him, she had bled with him, fought with him, and they had made such progress together. Naruto was strong, protective, energetic and optimistic, the perfect complement to her own strong, quiet, thinking and wary mind, together, they covered all the areas of the personality spectrum. But then again, he was rash, happy-go-lucky, blunt as a hammer and spastic. Ah, but you yourself are over-cautious, too precise to get the big picture, a worrywart, and introverted.

"What the hell?" Temari shouted.

Naruto dropped into a defensive stance and began searching for nearby enemies. Calm yourself, kitten, it's me, Tigra, I wanted to point out a couple things that make you and Naruto very special before you make a decision. According to my own memory, the Uzumakis have always separated the armors into two groups, the Warriors and the Warlords. This created a system of checks and balances, these two sides often opposed one another, but now, you could bring them together, to help revive the Uzumakis. You are perfect opposites, but opposites attract. Naruto is so eager to please that you could have the man who could be the most powerful human being on the face of the earth wrapped around your finger. He has a tailed beast, you have the eyes of the prophet. He takes care of the big picture while you do all the nitpicking, which suits you. You might want to let Naruto you're talking to me, by the way, he is nearly wetting himself trying to figure out what is going on here…

Temari looked at Naruto who was franticly buzzing around trying to figure out what was wrong with her. "Hey," Temari said, Naruto stopped and stared at her, "Sorry, Tigra just started talking to me, but she is miles away from here, it freaked me out is all, okay? Get walking, I'll follow."

Naruto audibly sighed relief. As I was saying… Naruto is a great guy and you know it, but in order for you to get control over him…

I don't want to control him, I projected, I would never do that.

Don't you see it yet? Naruto is a guy, he wants to know what you want, and once he find that out, he is going to give it to you and expect something in return. That is how they work. I know Naruto, he likes you, and he is a bit intimidated by you, in awe of you, I believe would be the right word. He wants to try to absorb some of the parts of you that he thinks he could do better with. I am not saying that you will control him like a puppet, I am saying that you will be able to keep him from doing something stupid, or hurting someone, when he possibly can't see something you do, or can't understand something you do. I am a goddess, I can see your souls, they match. Besides, would you rather that Pink-haired schitzo have sway over him?

Is it really love if I know all this and he doesn't?

All women know this, they have the control, because you ground men, you keep them from doing things even they know are stupid but can't resist. But, I guess it all comes down to one question: Do you want him to love you like I can see you already love him?

Temari thought about it, what she had thought was like might have been love, an early love, but still love. I guess I do…

'I guess' is never good enough. Do you or don't you?

I do.

So then what you need to do is keep him off balance, keep your composure at all times, and hint at things you want him to do or get you, and wait for him to do it, accept it, and slowly let your affections go, so he has to work for it, because once he feels your affection, he won't let it go. Don't ever give him a full smile, smirk, and work your way up, you have a beautiful smile, make him work for it.

okay, so how do I hint that I want him to take me out on a date?

Hint that you want to try a new kind of food, say you would like a coffee, or try some new drink you heard of, I am a fan of Root Beer myself. Or go see a movie, or just talk to him after a training session.

I think I got it.

Naruto was walking to her right, and he occasionally glanced over to her. Temari was careful not to smile, and she said, "You know, at this city, I want to try this new drink, Root Beer, I heard about it from Tigra, she highly recommends it…"

Naruto saw an opportunity here, he needed to snatch it. So he plucked up his courage and said, "Well, when we get to Vok, we'll have to try it, my treat."

"Like a date…?"

"It could be if you wanted it to be…"

shit, what do I say?! Temari projected, but Tigra didn't answer back, which meant she had left, or was silently watching. Bitch.

"I'd like that," Temari said.

Naruto's eyes lit up, why in the world would Temari say something like that, unless she meant it? Did he have a shot with her? Naruto thought a happy dance was in order, but restrained himself, and promised to do it later, when he was alone. "Then it's a date," Naruto said cheerfully.

The rest of the walk was silent, and uneventful. From out of the forest canopy, a single stone tower poked out, and soon, the trees cleared, and rolling hills of grain and wheat took up the remaining space. The single tower ended up being a castle, huge and gray. A drawbridge covered the rather large moat and on the other side, ten guards stood perfectly still. Naruto and Temari walked in and the first guard on the right challenged, "Who are you and what is your business in Vok City?"

"My name is Subaku, I am a traveler from the east, I have come with a dear friend to find work, I heard there was need for skilled and manual labor here, so we traveled here. It is a beautiful city."

"What skills do you have?" the guard asked.

"I have a bit of skill with swordplay, and a bit of ninjutsu, as does my partner here, Namikaze. We are known to be quite formidable where we come from."

"Ninjutsu? You're ninjas? You don't look like ninjas."

Naruto threw a kunai which missed the guard's ear by no less than an inch. The guard didn't even flinch, to his credit, but he then said, "Well, I'll send you to Captain smith, he'll set you to work."

The guard gave us directions, and we set out into the city. The city itself was walled in by a ring of stone battlements. It had mountains to the east and north, fields to the south and the sea to the west. The Military section was the main castle in the center of town, the market square was just at the southern gate, to the north and east were the residential districts and the west was the port. Captain smith was found in the eastern district, sitting at a table with a bunch of papers, in fine armor, surrounded by twenty guards. Temari approached him and said, "Two new recruits, reporting for duty, Captain Smith."

"Ah, the 'ninjas', I heard about you. To be frank, I don't believe you, there aren't ninjas anymore. I heard that a single good ninja could take five men by themselves, let's see if you can do that, shall we?"

Two arenas were prepared for them, Naruto unwrapped two katanas and hung them on his back, Temari readied all her kunai and took out her practice Kusarigama. Five soldiers walked into Naruto's arena. The public around the general area were placing bets on how long Naruto would last. They weren't favorable. Naruto drew his swords, and the soldiers drew their own and readied their shields. Naruto blurred forward and took out two soldiers with a double slash. They had bad cuts through their shields and armor, and they collapsed. The three others gathered around Naruto and charged together. Naruto jumped into the air and flew through a couple handsigns, and shouted, "Fire Style: Dragon Flame Bombs!"

The three guards roasted. All five were taken to what Naruto hoped was a hospital. Then many people began betting for Temari to win against the five, while others thought she would lose because she was a woman. Temari waited for the guards. They had shields and spears as well as swords. They grounded their spears. Temari twirled the scythe end of her weapon above her head and destroyed their well made weapons with a single swipe. Then Temari swung her mace side to clock a soldier upside his helmed head. She wrapped another guard around the neck and pulled on him, bringing him to his knees right in front of one of his friends, tripping him up, Temari sliced the man's belt off and destroyed his main armor. Temari used the mace side to swipe down over the shield to pound in the fourth man's chest and then stared intently at the fifth, who turned and ran.

Captain Smith stood up and began clapping and said, "Way to prove me wrong, cadets. Welcome to the army. You will be assigned your duties at five am sharp tomorrow right here, dismissed."

Naruto sheathed his weapons and threw his hands up behind his head and kneaded his fingers together. "Hahaha, we showed that fool, eh, Temari?"

Temari laughed and said, "C'mon, we better find our quarters and stuff."

Naruto found a soldier on guard duty and asked him, "Hey, we're the new guys, mind telling us where we sleep tonight?"

"The Male and Female barracks are separate, you will not be sleeping together."

"F-F-Fool!" Naruto sputtered, "I didn't mean it like that, I meant that we need to know where the barracks are!"

"My apologies, they are in the military sector, there are signs leading everywhere from any of the gates."

Naruto stuck his hands in his pockets, 'humphed' and walked towards the sector and his bed. Temari followed close behind, careful to glare at the tactless guard. The Barracks were easy to find, and once they were there, Naruto turned to Temari and said, "So, how about that, what was it you called it, 'Root Beer'?"

"You know where to find some?" Temari asked, arching her eyebrow.

"I can do that easy," Naruto replied, looked around, identified a guard and bellowed, "Hey, you, can you tell me where to get a good Root Beer?"

The guard looked at them and shouted back, "What's the magic word you ass?"

Naruto drew a kunai and grinned as he shouted, "My foot up your ass?"

The guard grumbled and pointed at a sign that directed them to Amlet's bar. Temari and Naruto set down the main avenue and eventually found the place, it was very crowded and loud, with a long line extending from the door. Two big guys were standing outside directing people in, or sending them away. Temari sighed at the thought of being in line, but Naruto walked straight up to the front. "What do I have to do to convince you to let me and my friend in?"

One guy pointed to the line, narrowing his eyes. Naruto looked like he was about to say something Temari would regret, when Captain Smith walked out of the bar and said, "Oh, hey, Mike, let these guys through, they're the new guys, and if I am right, are going to be climbing the ranks faster than that bastard Mustang. Namikaze and Subaku are ninjas, some of the last legitimate ones, it would pay to show them courtesy, to you know, convince them to settle."

Mike looked Naruto up and down and said, "What kind of ninja wears Orange?"

"The kickass kind," Naruto quipped as he dragged Temari by the hand through the crowd. One table had a bunch of unconscious drunks, so Naruto asked Temari to check the bar, and once she was gone, he had clones drag them out and clean the table. Temari came back to find Naruto all ready for her. He praised himself mentally and beckoned for her to sit down. A flustered red head waitress walked up to them and asked, "What can I do for you two fine people?"

"Two Root beers please," Naruto said.

Temari nodded her thanks and glanced at Naruto, he was taking care of her, he was racking up points tonight. She glanced through the crowd, nervous habit, or survival skill for a ninja, depends on the way you look at it. Captain Smith was talking to their waitress, and he carefully glanced over to them, and quickly looked away, it was clear he was talking about them. The waitress bustled over to the bar and came back with two frothy, cold mugs filled to the top with their beverages. Then she wiggled her way through the crowd into the kitchens. Naruto looked at the drink warily, then picked it up, it seemed to be bubbling. Temari picked up hers with just as much caution and they clincked mugs. Naruto sipped his own slowly, and Temari, seeing this, tried it herself. It was bubbly, cold, and sweet and a bit of another flavor she couldn't quite identify. It was amazing. Naruto's eyes had widened after the fist sip, so he nearly threw it back in his second try. He gulped it all down faster than a fat guy eats a Hershey bar. Temari took a long gulp and decided to take a slow, large gulp herself. It was excellent.

When Temari set her mug down, the red head waitress had two trays ready for them. One had what seemed to be two ridiculously large egg rolls, while the other had what looked like triangular, browned and thickened fried rice-papers with a glob or a green substance in the center. The Waitress looked at them for a second and said, "Uh, well, dig in!"

"Sure, but uh… could we get some chop-sticks?"

"What are chop sticks?"

It was Naruto's turn to stare blankly, the lady didn't know what chop sticks were, then what did they eat with? Temari said, "Where we're from, we use chop sticks to pick up our food and bring it to our mouths. What should we use here?"

"Honey, this is all finger food, you pick it up with your hands and then uh… bring it to your mouths."

Naruto picked up a big egg roll and said, "Ok."

Naruto took a bite out of the thing, chewed and swallowed. Temari watched his reaction carefully. Then Naruto hummed and asked, "What do you call this thing? It's delicious!"

"That would be burrito."

"The chef will be glad to hear it."

Then Temari asked, "um, how do we eat that other thing then?"

The Red head said, "Well, um, you take a chip… those triangular things, dip it into the guacamole, that green stuff, and you get a bit of that on the chip and then you eat it."

Temari followed her as she said it. It was amazing, a blend of crunchy and mushy and it was spicy and salty all at once. Then she picked up the burrito and started to eat that. Naruto swallowed the bite he had been working on and then asked, "Um, so, how should we pay for this, I mean, we only asked for Root Beers and I don't have any of your money, only our kind of money."

"The Burritos were on Captain Smith and the chips and dip are on the house. And the Root Beer is on the fountain, so you can have as many refills as you want."

Naruto gaped at her so Temari saved the day and said, "Could you thank the chef for his wonderful hospitality and we'll thank Captain Smith in person tomorrow."

The waitress nodded and wiggled away through the crowd. The food was delicious and once they were done, Naruto jokingly said, "This first date brought to you by the Citizens of Vok city."

Temari laughed, he was getting better at that, well, dealing with Rikku did that to a person, but Naruto saying that kind of stuff seemed almost ridiculous. Since they didn't have much to talk about, they silently joked about Rikku and all that, but nothing really more. Eventually, when they were done, they silently left the table, Naruto left a couple notes of Emergency Cash on the table. When they were outside, Temari decided that Naruto would be okay to date, even if it was a bit sudden. So on the walk back to the barracks she intertwined her hand with his. Naruto looked down in shock, but then gripped softly back and smiled to himself.

When they reached the fork in the road to the two different barracks, Temari turned to face him and Naruto said, "So, um, tonight was a ton of fun, with the new food and stuff, and umm…"

Temari leaned in close to his face and gently planted her lips on his. She decided she would give him the first kiss and then make him work for every single one after that. Naruto blushed heavily, but before he could try to advance the innocent kiss, she separated and walked away, sure to put a bit more sway in her hips than usual. Naruto felt like jumping for joy, he was incredibly pleased. He collapsed in bed, and dreamed of blonde hair, the scent of guacamole and an attractive, haughty laugh. He woke up at four, brushed his teeth, used the bathroom and dressed by four thirty. He met up with Temari outside, and they made their way to the docks and Captain Smith's spot. He was waiting there for them, and he handed them each a stack of maybe fifty letters. "So, there are five main sections of this city, and each section is divided up again into five. You will be dropping these off at the appointed spots on each of those letters, any without names go to the houses mentioned, any with names must go to the specific person mentioned. Got it?"

Naruto nodded, made five clones and handed them each ten letters. They all dissipated in no time flat. Temari sighed, and took off just as fast. Fifteen minutes later, Naruto was back. He saluted the captain, who smiled and said, "Productive little guy, aren't ya?"

"I try sir," Naruto said.

"Alright, I'll let your partner deliver the rest of the letters I have here, and then she can deliver them for the other captains too. You can make clones? How many?"

"About fifty," Naruto lied, if he told them he could maintain a thousand, they would really use him as a weapon of war. The Captain's eyes widened, "Fifty?" he sputtered.

Naruto nodded and the Captain said, "Okay, so you will send ten of your clones to help my hunters who meet in that red tent across the quad here. Then ten will go to the guards section at the blue tent, ten will go to the green tent for the mines, ten will go to the yellow tent and ask construction if they need some strong backs and the last ten will remain here throughout the day acting as my bodyguards, okay?"

Naruto nodded and made forty nine clones, which hopped to their individual assignments. The captain handed out jobs and every hour on the hour people would check in. At approximately six Temari came back noticed the ten Narutos and whispered, "You just couldn't help yourself could you?"

Naruto shrugged. Temari shook her head and kneeled before the captain, "What can I do for you now, my lord?"

"Ah, well, all the work that I needed to get done today is done, and I need to let my superiors know, you two will deliver this to Overlord Thomas who is currently in the main council chamber, which is the entire first floor of the main building of the castle in the middle of town, go, and quickly, and if I may advise you, show a little flare with your entrance for greatest effect. Really wow them, I happen to know there is an opening for sunlight in the middle of the ceiling, it would be most dramatic."

"If I may," Temari asked, "I was wondering, why you are doing all this for us?"

"My Overlord has charged me with putting you to the most work I can without running you into the ground, I have given you all the work I physically can, so I apparently cannot tire you out, they will like this, and want you two to settle down and start a dojo or whatever so we could start a ninja program here. Plus, the First Lord (the guy who owns this city) has a son who is about your age who is fascinated with ninjas. He will promote you for every chance he gets, and I think that you could quite soon be Overlords yourselves, and then, maybe, you will remember good old Captain Smith."

"We will," Naruto promised as he took the letter, "The ceiling, right, let's go then."

Naruto left his nine shadow clones and dashed with Temari to the castle. The council hall must have been the big building in the center, so they ran on the walls in that direction. They jumped up to the walls and ran up to the roof. The hole in the ceiling was wide open, letting the easy sunlight dance around inside. Naruto waited for the main speaking area to be clear, and he jumped in. He flipped twice and struck his best ninja pose on the way down. He landed without a sound, everybody had seen him, but nobody had heard a sound. Temari shouted from behind him to the crowd he wasn't facing in the circular room, "Hello, gentlemen of Vok City, we have a letter from Captain Smith for Overlord Thomas, it is apparently urgent."

A man with a pale complexion, long black hair and dark brown eyes stood up silently. Naruto blurred over to him and handed him the envelope. The man read the letter quickly and precisely and then projected, "I would like to present this letter to the council, I think there are a couple promotions in order today."

The motion passed and Thomas took the stage. He read: "_To the most esteemed Overlord Thomas Baik and any who might be interested:_

_ "These two people who have brought this message to you are named Namikaze and Subaku, they are ninja, as you may well know by now, they each proved their fighting skill yesterday by individually taking on five men and trouncing them in less than ten seconds. Today, they finished everything on my to do list for the week in under four hours. They are most certainly the real deal, I humbly suggest they be put to use by the council since my business for the day is finished."_

_ "Your Vassal,_

_ "Captain Zeke Smith"_

Naruto didn't like the way the men in the chamber had been sizing him up before the letter had been read and were now practically drooling over him like a piece of meat. Then the Overlord began speaking again, "I would like to remind the council that these two do not have any experience leading men, I will keep them under my own jurisdiction for now, but promote them to overseer. We will check back in with them later. I would like to remind the council that these two do work for me, and only me. If any one of you makes a move to try to take that from me, I will arrange for a duel."

Temari noticed one guy was sitting on a throne like chair, he must have been the First Lord, and to his right, was a guy who had silver eyes, which were glimmering gleefully. The Overlord had them kneel, and he pinned a set of Vok crests on their shoulders, and he projected, "Rise, Overseers."

They rose from their knees and grinned to each other, infiltration: success.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Decided to add a preview section for those who read all the way to the bottom, and I know it isn't too descriptive, but I hope it gets you all excited for the next one! I hope you guys like the way the story is headed, but I need a beta for this story, bad, so please if someone would like to take me up on the offer, please comment or pm me, either way, I really appreciate it.

IPOD384

PREVIEW OF NEXT CHAPTER

Being an Overseer isn'et as easy as Naruto thought it would be, the peons are lazy, his room is shabby on a good day, Temari is playing hard to get, and worst of all, this Hawkeye character just won't stop making his life hell! Naruto doesn't know how Hawkeye pulls his high stakes heists off, but he is most certainly using ninjutsu, he just has to catch him in the act and not trip over his own feet on the way. Ashai and Nefer are still training, and Rikku reveals a new secret about the armors, and their most sacred guardian.


	8. Chapter 8

DUAL FLAMES CHAPTER 8

When Captain Smith had told Naruto about his new quarters, he had said that he would have the room to himself, his own furniture, a great view of the city and comfortable lighting. As Naruto stared into his room, he checked off the Captain's promises. His room was a seven foot square room, with a Spartan bed, desk and stool, and he had a tiny window which he could barely look out of on his toes which let in barely any light at all. "This," Naruto commented, "is a jail cell."

"Nonsense!" Captain Smith said with a firm pat on Naruto's back, "the bathroom is down the hall and it even has stalls now, the barracks are sometimes two men to a bed, pitch black at noon, and nowhere to sit besides beds. This is heaven compared to that!"

Naruto nodded, but bemoaned his loss of the space in his room back at the fort. "Okay, there are perks, but I got this pet, and he needs a lot more space than this… is there any way I could get a bigger room?"

"Namikaze! You surprise me, of course there isn't a better room, they're all standard! But if you got a big pet, you could put him in the stables with the horses."

"My pet will eat horses…"

Captain Smith was alarmed and asked, "What kind of pet do you have?"

"A tiger," Naruto sighed.

Captain Smith sputtered something starting with a 'T'. and then gulped and said, "Namikaze… where is your pet?"

"He's outside the walls," (Captain Smith began breathing again) "He's hunting deer for meals, but one deer is half a meal and he eats three meals a day…"

"Is… he… tame?"

"Perfectly, for humans, anyway, and well, only if people other than me don't get too close, he's an angel."

"We'll… make arrangements, right now, you get your tiger and we'll… sort this out."

Naruto nodded and walked out of the tower and quickly found Peanut. He hopped on his back and they rode into town. Captain Smith's jaw dropped and he backed up. He then escorted them to the stables where Peanut got an entire side to himself. The tiger smugly arranged the straw and began to nap. Naruto was instructing the chefs on what to feed him when Temari came in. She asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Well," he responded, "This guy needs to know not to try to feed Peanut Turkey, cause we don't want a bloodbath, do we chef?"

The terrified fat man shook his head wildly. Naruto patted his shoulder and Temari sighed, "We have been summoned by the Captain. It's urgent."

Naruto nodded and motioned for her to lead the way. They leapt to the Captain's usual command post. He looked up and asked, "I trust… Peanut, was it? Has been taken care of?"

"Most excellently, Captain," Naruto said and saluted.

"Great, well, all the work of the day is just starting, so the mines, the hunters and all those people are requesting your labor again, so hop to that Naruto, but the real you stay here, you will have overseer duty today as well."

Naruto nodded, formed his clones and they were off to the races. Then Captain smith handed them both a boomerang. "This, is your tool as an overseer, you see someone being lazy, rebellious, or dazed, you hit 'em with this, hard. Knock some sense into their heads till they get back to work. You will be on constant patrol from dawn till dusk. Subaku and the clones that were my body guards yesterday will be in charge of this, okay?"

Naruto made nine more clones and they each picked up a boomerang and started patrol. Temari left too, leaving the real Naruto and Captain Smith. "Namikaze," the Captain said, "The Overlord wants you to personally handle a different problem today, a faction of thieves known as the thieves' guild is robbing all our transports of any kind, taking goods, money and anything else. You need to send a message, kill twenty of them, and then recover five crates of out stolen goods, got it?"

"Where do I start looking?"

"They tend to wear dark blue colors, and they always have a cheaply made brass necklace with an amulet of a bow and arrow around their necks. They move in groups of four and are quite good at running from roof top to roof top. We have a big shipment of iron over there across the street for you to watch over, they'll show up, show no mercy. And if you get the chance kill the leader, he always has a long bow and is named Hawkeye."

Naruto nodded and dashed to the shipment. A man was counting things and hitching up horses. Naruto walked up to him and said, "Hey! I'm Overseer Namikaze, I'll be watching out for those thieves on top of the roofs, waiting, when they attack, I'll take care of them, but I want you to stop moving, so I don't lose you in the confusion, okay?"

The stunned driver nodded and Naruto leapt onto the roof of the nearest building. The cart set off and Naruto followed careful to stay out of sight. Eventually, about half way to the appointed destination, eight men stood, blocking the gate, they were wearing all blue and Naruto noticed another eight on the surrounding buildings. He snuck up on them and knocked them out and tied them up before the cart encountered the other men. He threw them in a pile so he could take them to questioning later. As the cart came to a stop, one man started toward the driver and four jumped onto the cart. Naruto drew two kunai and jumped in with them, he slashed two of the men open before they had even noticed him, the other two were too shocked to do anything other than stare, so Naruto threw the kunai in their stomachs. Naruto sent off three balls of flame at the three standing at the gate and Naruto lunged at the last, but he ran away. He climbed up on the roof and started running full tilt. Naruto played along, hoping to get lead to the enemy base. Eventually the last man jumped into an alley and started screaming about being followed. Thieves came out of the cracks. Naruto formed some clones and dove in to their hide out.

Say one thing about Naruto Uzumaki, say that he's subtle. Naruto went to town, these men were nothing compared to him, then two clones got taken out by something. A man with a long bow was on the top of a building, picking off clones. Naruto jumped up to him, and shot fireballs at him, but he dodged. Naruto threw ten kunai, but they were dodged or deflected. Naruto charged him with a fully formed Rasengan and upon contact, he turned into smoke. Naruto looked down, only air, and a long fall. He landed in a stack of hay and jumped back up. This Hawkeye was a ninja, no doubt about it. He wore purple clothes with a billowing purple cloak. Naruto swung at him and landed a punch. "Who trained you?" Naruto demanded.

"Who trained you?" Hawkeye demanded.

"I'm asking the questions here!"

"Fine, I'll answer, but you're next at the answering side of twenty questions, got it?"

"Talk!"

"I'm an Uzumaki! My father trained me, how did you learn those moves, you're faster than anyone I've ever fought…"

Naruto looked down at him and said, "shit… you need to get out of here, you know that big oak tree outside the southern gate?"

Hawkeye nodded, "What of it?"

"You and me need to have words, meet me there after dusk. Now run!"

Hawkeye said, "hell no, not until you tell me who trained you!"

"A couple people most recently, Jiraiya the Pervy Sage and Rikku Uzumaki, my aunt."

Hawkeyes eyes widened but he nodded, got up and ran. Naruto jumped into the alley, took the medallions of the thieves and then had his clones disguise them as hay and take them out of the city.

Naruto sprinted off to the Captain's spot. He was winded, but ecstatic. He dropped the medallions on the desk and said, "The bodies are taken care of. I found some crates in their hideout. Hawkeye might have been there, but he ran and before I could give chase, I was set upon by a great number of his followers. I apologize, sir."

The Captain waved him off and said, "I asked for twenty dead and five crates and you gave me at least forty dead and most likely their hideout. I'll have some peons clean it up. Let's see, your next duty is in the military sector…"

While Naruto was given another mission, Temari was smacking peons left and right. They all got distracted by the female overseer, but were quickly put back in their place, working harder than she left. After she had hit one entire major section, she grabbed a cup of water at a nearby convenience store and sat down. As she stared into the water, her reflection swirled and then Ezio's reflection remained. He mouthed, "Can you see me?"

She nodded.

He smirked and then said, "okay, so here's the deal, Nefer and Ashai are coming around swell, so don't worry about them, and I have been watching you two from any reflective surface I can latch onto, but Rikku wants to step the operation up. In the nearby well, there is a bucket at the bottom. Pull it up and there should be a green plastic tube. Dip your kunai in the substance inside this tube and use that to spread it over your boomerang. Let it dry and make sure you cover every inch, got it?"

She nodded again, with a bit more subtly that time.

Ezio then said, "Okay, so after that, make sure not to touch it with your hand, so get gloves or whatever you need to and use the boomerang, upon contact with skin, that paste will cause flu-like symptoms for two weeks, we will use this boomerang one a month to get the populace afraid of it, and then we will release it into the very air when we decide to strike, it will cause riots as a cover, okay?"

Temari downed the water, found the well and did as instructed. She used her poisoned weapon with care and extreme accuracy, delivering blows to anybody who was slacking off. When dusk finally rolled around, she met up with Naruto, who was nearly bouncing with a rare energy, something was up, and he couldn't wait to get things started. Captain Smith paid them, and dismissed them. Naruto went to the stables and jumped on Peanut. They nearly flew out of the city to the southern gate. Over the nearest hill was a gigantic oak tree. A man with a longbow was standing there. Naruto leapt off Peanut and shook the man's hand. He was eyeing Temari suspiciously, after all, Naruto hadn't said anything about a chick. "Who's this?" Hawkeye asked.

Naruto blinked and then said, "Oh, yeah! Temari, this is Hawkeye, Hawkeye, this is Temari."

Temari waved and Hawkeye nodded. Then he said, "Okay, prove it. Prove that you've been training under Rikku Uzumaki."

Temari's jaw dropped, Naruto had spilled the beans already? As he turned around, Naruto said, "He's an Uzumaki, I've seen him fight."

Temari's jaw dropped farther. Then Naruto held out his hand and shouted, "**ARMOR OF WILDFIRE: DAO JIN!**"

Naruto appeared in full armor, so Temari followed suit. As they stood there, Hawkeye shook his head in amazement and then said, "My name is Clint. My dad and his sister dodged the persecution of the clan through some covert means and the fact that my aunt married the First Lord, so her children live in the palace and I was forced into the streets by the palace elders, where did they find you guys?"

Naruto gulped and said, "I am the son of Kushina Uzumaki and Temari is my… I-don't-know-what-to-call-it-right-now, I guess friend. She got an armor somehow too, so we're training together, and looking for any remnants of the Uzumaki. We knew that some Uzumakis were in the castle somewhere, but we didn't know where. It's great that we found you."

Then a great wind started to blow. It blew all the leaves off the Oak tree and then wrapped around Clint. When it went away, he was covered in the powered down version of the Armor of Strata. He looked around and then at himself. He jumped and then started to move around and then said, "This is amazing… how did this happen?"

"I haven't the slightest, but it's been happening a lot lately though," Temari said.

"We need to get you away from here…" Naruto said, "We'll send you to the fort to train… don't look at me like that, Peanut doesn't bite and he knows the way, hop on him."

Clint nodded and carefully climbed onto the gigantic cat. Peanut bounded off and then Naruto said, "He had a band of thieves which I will send there too, but over time, we can't have them causing trouble now, can we?"

Temari shook her head and they headed back into the city.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Rikku stood at the front gate of the fort, watching another cart of Clint's 'merry men' pile into the fort. The upside was that the fort was much better off, number wise, but the bad news was that they were much more noticeable too. The thieves were easily trained to fighting capability and they had a certain fire in them, but they were also loud. She shrugged, it was something she'd have to worry about later.

Clint had taken to the training she had for him quite well, he was shaping up nicely under her tutelage alone, it helped that they had the same chakra nature. Nefer and Ashai were making leaps and bounds under Kakashi and Iruka. Ashai was almost ready for missions, as well as Clint, Nefer was a good fighter, but she needed a primary move which wasn't also her sure-kill, so once Iruka was done with that, the Sand insisted that Nefer be taught by an approved Sand Shinobi. One everyone was in the fort, Rikku sealed the door.

Ezio was waiting for her. He asked, "Can you answer some questions I have about the armors? And may I be blunt in asking them?"

Rikku found them a quiet spot and said, "Ask away."

"Okay, so, why are all the armors choosing people so fast all of the sudden? How did Temari, a non Uzumaki get an armor? What is your plan for me?"

"I'll start with the last one and lead you through them all, okay? So, there are nine armors, but there have always been ten people seated on the Uzumaki council, the nine warriors and The Ancient. The Ancient is the guardian of the armors. It is that person's duty to push the armors to make decisions that are good for the clan. The armors always like to have a bearer, so they pick pretty fast, and there aren't many candidates left, so, yes, they are moving fast. I don't know why or how the armor of Loyalty picked Temari, but I do know that it did. What I plan for you… I am the current Ancient, and you will be the next. If you want to know why, well, honestly, I have a gut feeling and I'm going with it."

Ezio nodded and then sat for a minute, in deep thought and then said, "So, what do I have to learn to do?"

"You already are, you're directing Naruto and Temari through their infiltration of Vok City and relaying the info to me. You're doing great, so don't worry about it, the bulk of the knowledge about the armors will be passed to you in my death, so just do what I say now and it will all make sense later, okay?"

"That was ominous. You planning on dying soon?"

Rikku laughed and stood up, Ezio right behind her. Training was about to start.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Naruto was snoring in his new quarters. In light of his service to Vok City, he had been awarded another promotion. He and Temari were Captains of the special forces. The special forces consisted of him and her, so it worked out great. They worked directly for their Overlord and got all the grunt, and overseer work they had had to do before while this all went down. Temari sighed as she couldn't sleep. She snuck out her window and over the outside of the walls to Naruto's window. She slid in and dropped into his chair. She patted him and got nothing, he was out. She tapped his head and still nothing. So she punched him and still he slept. He was kinda cute, in her opinion, when he was asleep. Then he began to stir, and Temari realized how creepy she would look if he woke up so she scrambled to her room and finally sleep took her.

In the morning, they received summons from the First Lord's firstborn. They readied themselves for the day and went into the meeting. As they walked there, Temari recapped Clint's knowledge of the First Lord's house. "The First lord had had five wives, each of them bearing two children. He was about to tell us more before Rikku caught him communicating with us, so we'll just have to test them somehow, do you think we should do something basic, like a disguise?"

Naruto hummed in thought and said, "Well, I'm not exactly suited for that kind of thing, I'll let you handle it."

Temari rolled her eyes and sighed. It was the truth though, despite the harsh reality of it. Once they were at the appointed place, they noticed the guards that had begun to steer them to a garden. It was beautifully green and covered in soft, bright green grass. The son was standing there, his silver eyes dancing and he glanced over to a nearby stone bench where who must have been his sister was reading a book. The girl looked up from her book and sized us up, and returned to her book, titled :**HERBS**. She casually flicked through the pages. "My name is Donald, and this is my sister Jessica. The royal family is mandated to learn a bit of ninjutsu, but we were wondering if you could teach us a bit more. Do you have time?" the Prince asked.

Naruto looked to Temari who shrugged so Naruto nodded. Donald clapped his hands together and said, "Capital, then, shall we start with sparring?"

Naruto stepped forward and Jessica shouted, "Begin!"

Naruto charged up to the prince and punched the guy in the gut. Donald rolled under Naruto and kicked up into his balls. Naruto went down while Donald attempted to retrieve his breath. As soon as Donald was breathing normally he punched Naruto. Naruto poofed, and suddenly appeared behind Donald, where a descisive blow was given, resulting in Naruto's win. Donald stood up and said, "You're so fast… how'd you to that?"

Naruto smiled and said, "A ninja never reveals his secrets!"

Naruto heard clapping and turned to see the First Lord standing there. He was smiling and laughing, and he gasped out, "Need… moment… *giggle* alone with… ninja."

Naruto and Temari simultaneously gulped. The First lord stood up and said, "Well… two little Uzumaki-children fall right into my lap. Perfectly timed, as always, by the way, exquisitely performed, I must say. My name is Gaius Vok Septimus. My family was the chief employer of the Uzumaki clan all the way up to the 'purge', as some of my fellow rulers call it, and a chief refuge for any who came to me during and after. My children, Donald and Jessica have very strong Uzumaki blood in their veins. They want to restore the clan to its former glory. In their eyes, that means gaining the right to wear the legendary armors you two probably guard. You, of course know of the armors, don't you?"

"You could say that," Temari replied.

Gaius' eyes widened and he asked, "oh, dear lord don't tell me you two are armor bearers?"

Naruto showed the man his hand and the tattooed swords seemed to glow. Donald and Jessica were both shocked and then appeared very anxious to ask questions. "This makes everything much more simple," said Gaius, "I was going to ask you to introduce me to the armor bearers, but this is just as good. I want to make a deal with you, you get freedom from any and all law other than mine in Vok city, in exchange for training these two here. They do not want to rule Vok City, so they will stay prince and princess here, they want to revive their family, just like you two do."

"I want proof," Naruto demanded, "I want to know that they're Uzumaki. I didn't come all the way out to the West just to find that I am surrounded by broken remnants and imposters. Prove to me that they have the Uzumaki blood in them."

"I believe I can do that," a new voice entered the conversation.

Naruto turned and identified the speaker to be a woman in very elaborate dress, using her chakra to stick to the side of a nearby stone wall. "Who are you?" Temari demanded.

"I, Naruto, am your aunt," she said, "You look like that bastard father of yours but you act like your mother, I picked you out of a the crowd on your first day here."

Naruto drew a kunai and said, "My mother was banished from the clan, you're not allowed to speak of her, or speak to me!"

"What clan?" she asked bluntly, "You, those people training at that fort and my children are all that's left, and WildFire chose you. You are the clan, the Uzumaki of my day is dead, dead with The Purge."

Temari made Naruto lower his knife and said, "She's sticking to the wall, Naruto, she's legit."

Naruto nodded and said, "We will get them to the fort to be trained by Rikku. We don't have time for anything else. We'll go, if we're the clan, like you said, then as soon as my training is over here, then we leave this horrible place for the Elemental Nations."

"All the better that I don't have to convince you to go, I was going to force you. So, Rikku survived after all then? No wonder you seem so confident, no doubt you can summon the armor, activate it, incorporate jutsu with it and use its surekill?"

Temari nodded, and relaxed. Naruto noticed this and relaxed as well. "That's about right," Naruto said.

The woman nodded and said, "well, that's good and all, but not quite perfect, I have some scrolls for you to read and understand, which Rikku couldn't save from the battle of Carrion Hill. Read them and then deliver them to her, do you accept?"

Naruto nodded and the woman breathed out hard, as in relief. She pulled out nine scrolls from her sleeve and tossed them to Temari and Naruto. Naruto stored them in his pouch and pockets. Then he turned to Donald and Jessica. He said, "Okay, so, there aren't many of this, so what's been happening is an armor will choose you through whatever element or skill it represents, so if that happens, you'll faint, everybody does and I'll make sure you get out okay? Other than that, pack up, and get ready for some hard core training. Temari, can you take care of them, I want to talk to my aunt and uncle in law."

Temari nodded and ushered the new additions. Naruto turned to Gaius and said, "We owe you, and I expect you to want something for it, so, when you need us, call, okay?"

He nodded enthusiastically. Naruto went to his chambers and pulled out his scroll. It was a number of techniques that the armor was specially designed to do. It wasn't ninjutsu so much as certain weapons that Naruto hadn't been aware of. For instance, when he snapped his fingers, the air around his hand would ignite. Directing this was a simple idea, but hard in practice, his right hand was precise in aim, a lance of flame, but his left was akin to a bazooka. Naruto crashed onto his bed and slept for what could not have been longer than three minutes.

Explosions woke him up. He looked out his slit of a window to see some of the city on fire and a considerable fighting force outside the walls. Naruto scrambled out of his room and directly to the First Lord. Gaius was looking over a map with his generals and Temari when Naruto leapt in. Temari rolled her eyes and Naruto winced. Gaius looked up and said, "a neighbor of mine has decided to declare war on me, snuck up on us using magic and are fighting to take the city as we speak, so here is the plan so far for a counter attack…"

A messanger burst in and shouted, "My Lord, it's your children, Donald and Jessica have gone to the front lines! They're fighting like demons out there!"

Naruto looked at Temari and shouted, "I got Donald," then to the messanger, "Where is he?"

"Donald is on the east side, defending the city from the invaders from the cliffs!"

Naruto took off, and ran as fast as he could. Temari looked at the messanger and he blurted, "Jessica is on the southern wall, sending volley after volley of arrows with her special poison."

Temari ran off to the south. The gate was almost in ruins. The homes inside of it were severely damaged, and after a quick survey of the area, Temari found three breaches. She jumped into the fray and activated her armor. The entire battle seemed to pause and then Temari started her attack. She pushed the invaders back through brute force and chain. Once they were pushed back, the archers began to shoot into the crowd. Jessica was standing on the wall, shouting her head off in triumph. Then she swung her hand over her head and something flew up from behind the wall, it was a glass ball filled with green sludge. Temari jumped behind the wall just in time to avoid the poison. She switched on her mask just in time and realized what had happened.

Jessica had made a poison bomb, and horribly miscalculated it's range. Both sides of the conflict were dying horrible, screaming deaths. Jessica was coughing terribly and looked unbelievingly on her work as the toxic cloud reached her. She buckled and then fell. She coughed and then she seemed to bathe in green light. She stood up, in full warlord armor and sucked all the poison away from her defenders and they all eventually stood up, completely fine, while the enemy had been destroyed.

Temari rushed to her new comrade and held her up when she collapsed. She propped the other girl up on her shoulder and carried her back to the palace. Peanut was waiting, Jessica was tied haphazardly to the gigantic animal, and Peanut bounded off.

Naruto was in hell. Fiery boulders fell down from the cliffside, dropped by the enemy. Naruto and Donald were both running up the cliff face, dodging debris. They got to the top and Naruto held out his hand and shouted, "**ARMOR OF WILDFIRE: DAO JIN!**"

The red armor formed on him and he snapped his fingers and flame destroyed the catapults. The men manning them began to run around screaming and Naruto went after them. Donald was fighting off three at once, tearing them up, until the wizard became involved in the fray. A man in a purple robe with a pointed purple hat with star and moon prints split the earth under Donald, creating a fissure.

Naruto killed the wizard seconds after the fissure closed. He looked despairingly at the closed rock. Then, the rock pulsed and shook and split open anew. From it jumped Donald, fully armored, in the armor of HardRock. Donald stared at the back of his hands and fainted. Naruto hurled him over his own shoulder and jumped back to the center of the city. Temari was waiting there, "Hardrock!" Naruto shouted and Temari cursed.

"Peanut just took off, what are we going to do?"

Naruto flashed through some hand signs and summoned a large toad. "Could you please take this guy to the fort for me?" Naruto asked, and the toad nodded, swallowed Donald and then poofed away. Temari gave him a thumbs up and they turned to Gaius and asked simultaneously, "Where is the resistance the highest?"

"Our sources say that the entire force is regrouping at the southern gate, could you assist the guards there?"

Naruto nodded, closed his facemask and took off, Temari right behind him. Halfway there, Naruto's toad returned and it spat out Nefer, Ashai and Clint in full armor. The frog poofed away and Clint explained, "We're your back-up!"

Naruto nodded and sped up. They arrived at the southern gate to find a massive fighting force gathering. The guards on the walls were all covered in their own or their enemies blood, and terrified. Naruto leapt into the air and shot down a rain of fireballs. Temari began to analyze the way the army was forming up, identified leaders, pointed them out to Nefer, and they used smoke bombs and their daggers to take out the leadership. The army had been ordered and disciplined, but in seconds had turned into a rabble. Ashai charged into the fight head on, chidori in hand and took out twenty in a minute, and then began to hack and slash and raise general havoc. Clint stood on the ramparts and just started picking people off using arrows of wind chakra, making people appear to just get a random hole in their armor and then collapse in a pool of their own blood. After Naruto's initial attack, he targeted the wooden catapults and other weaponry, lighting them and their crews aflame.

Then the remnants of the army turned and ran, screaming in the horror and suddenness of it all. Naruto turned to see that Gaius as well as most of the noblemen of the city were watching in awe from the ramparts. Gaius began clapping and suddenly the applause was roaring across the ramparts. When the main gate was opened, the warriors were surprised to find women spreading flowers beneath their feet. Children ran up and touched their armored hands and ran back into the crowd as men shouted their approval. So by the time they had reached the Military quarter, Naruto had a very big head. As Temari was thinking of a way to bring him back down to earth, someone tapped their shoulders. It was Shikamaru and Gaara. Naruto took off his helmet and grabbed both of them into a hug. Shikamaru began to whine half-heartedly and Gaara winced but tapped Naruto's back. When Naruto let them go Gaara explained, "The Sand and the Leaf want to start an alliance with Vok City. We are the first emissaries from our respective villages… good to see you two by the way."

Naruto beamed and Shikamaru sighed and rubbed his shoulder. Temari rolled her eyes, he was such a good-for-nothing. Naruto guided the group to the nearest eatery. The Warriors let their armor dissipate and were immediately seated. A round of Root Beer was ordered which Gaara liked and Shikamaru showed disinterest in it at first, but once he was used to the carbonation was very pleased. As they caught up and introductions were explained, little did they know that the last two armors were choosing their bearers.

In the lands far to the South of Vok city and the Fort, the desert city called Carthac was hosting a meeting of the Illuminati. The two remaining Uzumakis that had been captured during The Purge were being discussed when they began to glow, and then suddenly appeared in armor. The Armor of Torrent and the Armor of Illusion. The men sitting at the table gaped and stared, and then, one and all, began to smile.

PREVIEW OF THE NEXT CHAPTER

The Illuminati is a group that was born in shadows, and it exists in the shadows. It has many resources and it has finally gotten its hands on two of the Ronin Armors. Using the black magic at their control, they trick Naruto and Temari into running head first into a trap set by ninja for ninja. Can Naruto and Temari save the last two Uzumakis, or will the armors be captured by the Illuminati, read next chapter to find out!

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, sorry for the long wait, AP tests and all that, so I've been busy, please review!


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